Systems and methods for relating events to a date or date range selection

• US 20040212636A1
• Filed: 04/25/2003
• Published: 10/28/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Stata Laboratories, Inc. (Altaba Inc. (f/k/a Yahoo! Inc.))
• Inventors: Stata, Raymond P., Prasad, Maram Nagendra, Jhunjhunwala, Ashok
• Granted Patent: US 7,496,857 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/703
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

Systems and methods for selecting a time/date, or a range of times/dates are provided. In one aspect, systems and methods having non-linear timeline UI mechanism(s) for selecting a date, or selecting a date range, are provided. In recognition that user interaction with and recall of time varies depending upon how far away the time period of interest is from the present time, the non-linear timeline provides UI mechanism(s) for selecting a time having different granularities of time in different portions of the timeline. Additionally, in recognition that user interaction with dates and times is not always in terms of numbers, but rather in terms of events, etc., occurring at or around a particular time period of interest, systems and methods having date relation UI techniques are provided.

Claims

1. A method for selecting a date, comprising:

inputting a change to a selector input portion of a time indicator user interface component from a first position to a second position thereby from an indication of a first time to an indication of a second time; and

displaying auxiliary information associated with the second time,

wherein said auxiliary information is at least one of an image, audio, video and text relating to said second time.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said indication of the first time includes an indication of a first range of time and wherein said indication of the second time includes an indication of a second range of time.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein said auxiliary information is displayed substantially adjacent to said second time.

4. A method according to claim 1, further including specifying a type of auxiliary information to be displayed.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein said auxiliary information includes at least one of information relating to an event, a personal event, an image, a holiday, an email, sports news, world news and a popular culture item of interest associated with the second time.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein said selector input portion includes a date range input portion having a first portion for specifying an upper limit date and a second portion for specifying a lower limit date.

7. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

inputting a change to a selector input portion of a time indicator user interface component from the second position to a third position thereby from an indication of the second time to an indication of a third time; and

displaying auxiliary information associated with the third time.

8. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

matching a temporal granularity associated with the auxiliary information with the period of granularity represented by the second time.

9. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving state information from the time indicator user interface component;

processing said state information and content from at least one data source by at least one agent; and

outputting a subset of said content from said at least one data source.

10. A method according to claim 9, further comprising:

outputting metadata information associated with said subset.

11. A method according to claim 9, further comprising:

processing by an arbiter at least one of said subset, information about a user of the time indicator user interface component and the state information;

determining a final set of content based on said processing by the arbiter.

12. A method according to claim 9, wherein said content includes e-mail data.

13. A method according to claim 1, wherein the difference from the first time to the second time changes non-linearly with the difference from the first position to the second position.

14. A method according to claim 1, wherein the time indicator user interface component includes at least one of a component-wise component, a calendar picker component, a linear timeline component and a non-linear timeline component.

15. At least one of an operating system, computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions, driver code, an application programming interface, a tool kit and a processing device for providing the date selecting of claim 1.

16. A modulated data signal carrying computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

17. A computing device comprising means for performing the method of claim 1.

18. A computing system for selecting a date, comprising:

a time indicator user interface component having a selector input portion wherein when the selector input portion is changed from a first position to a second position and thereby from an indication of a first time to an indication of a second time, auxiliary information associated with the second time is displayed, wherein said auxiliary information is at least one of an image, audio, video and text relating to said second time.

19. A computing system according to claim 18, wherein said indication of the first time includes an indication of a first range of time and wherein said indication of the second time includes an indication of a second range of time.

20. A computing system according to claim 18, wherein said auxiliary information is displayed substantially adjacent to said second time.

21. A computing system according to claim 18, further including specifying a type of auxiliary information to be displayed.

22. A computing system according to claim 21, wherein said auxiliary information includes at least one of information relating to an event, a personal event, an image, a holiday, an email, sports news, world news and a popular culture item of interest associated with the second time.

23. A computing system according to claim 18, wherein said selector input portion includes a date range input portion having a first portion for specifying an upper limit date and a second portion for specifying a lower limit date.

24. A computing system according to claim 18, wherein when the selector input portion is changed from the second position to a third position and thereby from an indication of the second time to an indication of a third time, auxiliary information associated with the third time is displayed

25. A computing system according to claim 18, wherein a temporal granularity associated with the auxiliary information is matched with the granularity represented by the second time.

26. A computing system according to claim 18, further comprising:

at least one data source having content stored therein;

at least one agent that process state information output from the time indicator user interface component and content from the at least one data source and outputs a subset of said content from said at least one data source.

27. A computing system according to claim 26, wherein said at least one agent outputs metadata information associated with said subset of said content.

28. A computing system according to claim 26, further comprising:

an arbiter component that processes at least one of said subset, information about a user of the time indicator user interface component and the state information and determines a final set of content based thereon.

29. A computing system according to claim 26, wherein said content includes e-mail data.

30. A computing system according to claim 18, wherein the difference from the first time to the second time changes non-linearly with the difference from the first position to the second position.

31. A computing system according to claim 18, wherein the time indicator user interface component includes at least one of a component-wise component, a calendar picker component, a linear timeline component and a non-linear timeline component.