Interface and method for exploring a collection of data

• US 20040243938A1
• Filed: 06/10/2004
• Published: 12/02/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: XBranch, LLC (Endpoint IP LLC)
• Original Assignee: Ruedger Rubbert, Thomas Weise
• Inventors: Weise, Thomas, Rubbert, Ruedger
• Granted Patent: US 7,631,255 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/526
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/748 Hypervideo linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object in the context of video distribution systems H04N21/858
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

An interface is provided for permitting a user to explore a collection of data. The data collection provides nodes as structural elements, and references which are assigned to nodes and hold identifiers of other nodes. Multiple references can be assigned to each node, thus guiding a user of the system to multiple other nodes, and multiple references can hold the same address, so that multiple nodes can have references pointing to the same node. The interface allows visualizing the network created by the interconnection of the nodes on a display region. The interface also allows the user to intuitively navigate along the references in both directions of the references, so that the user can explore which nodes are referenced by a certain node, and also by which nodes a certain node is referenced. Electronic documents can be assigned to each node, and the interface allows these documents to be displayed either directly in a reserved display region of the interface, or by launching a matching application on the user'"'"'s computer.

Claims

1. An electronic interface permitting a user to explore at least a portion of a collection of data, said collection consisting of at least a plurality of nodes and a plurality of directional references forming interrelations between said nodes, the interface comprising:

at least one display region which visualizes at least a portion of said collection by providing at least two arrangement modes, each of said arrangement modes visualizing interrelations of a particular direction of said references and capable of visualizing at least two levels of said interrelations,

2. The interface of claim 1, wherein the first of said arrangement modes comprises arranging all nodes with outgoing references to a given node above said given node, and wherein the second of said arrangement modes comprises arranging all nodes having incoming references from said given node below said given node.

3. The interface of claim 2, wherein both arrangement modes are used in parallel for a plurality of given nodes.

4. The interface of claim 1, further permitting the user to search for nodes within a collection of data.

5. The interface of claim 4, wherein said search comprises searching for nodes containing given characters, the characters being specified by the user.

6. The interface of claim 4, wherein said search comprises searching for nodes containing given characters in their descriptive names, the characters being specified by the user.

7. The interface of claim 4, wherein said search comprises searching for nodes having given characters in a document assigned to said nodes, the characters being specified by the user.

8. The interface of claim 4, wherein the nodes forming the search result are displayed in a view comprising:

at least one display region which visualizes at least a portion of said nodes by providing at least one arrangement mode capable of visualizing interrelations between said nodes.

9. The interface of claim 1, further permitting the user to execute database queries assigned to a node of said collection of data, and displaying the result of said query to the user.

10. The interface of claim 9, wherein the result of said query is displayed as a table.

11. The interface of claim 9, wherein the nodes forming the search result are displayed within the same display region which visualizes at least a portion of said collection of data, and using the same arrangement mode for the nodes forming the search result as being used for displaying nodes having incoming references from the node having the database query assigned to it.

12. The interface of claim 1, wherein the arrangement mode for displaying nodes having outgoing references to a given node further comprises excluding nodes from display that are labeled accordingly.

13. The interface of claim 1, wherein the arrangement mode for displaying nodes having outgoing references to a given node further comprises:

excluding from being displayed a first node having exactly one incoming reference from a second node, and

displaying said second node instead of said first node.

14. A method of exploring a collection of data by means of an electronic interface, said collection consisting of at least a plurality of data elements and a plurality of references forming interrelations between said data elements, and said interface being able to visualize at least two levels of said interrelations, comprising the steps of:

a user activating a hyperlink within a document displayed on a computer, said hyperlink referencing a first data element within said collection of data, and

said interface responding by displaying said first data element.