Visual thesaurus

• US 20050171760A1
• Filed: 10/08/2004
• Published: 08/04/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Plumb Design Inc.
• Original Assignee: Plumb Design Inc.
• Inventors: Tinkler, Marc
• Application Number:
  US10/962,245
• Publication Number:
  US 20050171760A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/247 Thesauruses; Synonyms

Abstract

A visual thesaurus system and method for displaying a selected term in association with its one or more meanings, other words to which it is related, and further relationship information. The results of a search are presented in a directed graph that provides more information than an ordered list. When a user selects one of the results, the display reorganizes around the user'"'"'s search allowing for further searches, without the interruption of going to additional pages.

Claims

1. A visual thesaurus system, comprising:

source means for obtaining information concerning a plurality of words, meanings and relationships between the words and meanings;

graphing means for determining a set of word, meaning and relationship information to be displayed in a directed graph related to a selected word from the plurality of words, meanings and relationship obtained by the source means;

positioning means for determining a relative position of the related words, meanings and relationships in the set of information to be displayed; and

displaying means for determining a representation of the related words, meanings and relationships in the set of information on a display;

wherein the selected word may have a plurality of meanings and each of the meanings of the selected word are displayed by the displaying means.

2. The visual thesaurus system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of meanings of the selected word are displayed as a node in the display.

3. The visual thesaurus system of claim 2, wherein selecting any of the nodes of the meanings of the selected word causes an associated definition to be displayed and triggers generation of a new directed graph corresponding to the selected meaning.

4. The visual thesaurus system of claim 1, wherein synonyms of each the plurality of different meanings of the selected word are displayed.

5. The visual thesaurus of claim 2, wherein the nodes are color coded according to a part of speech of the corresponding meanings.

6. The visual thesaurus system of claim 2, wherein the displaying means displays listings of the meanings of the selected word categorized by part of speech.

7. The visual thesaurus system of claim 1, wherein the positioning means imparts motion to the words, meanings and relationships using an informotion module.

8. The visual thesaurus system of claim 7, wherein the information module imparts motion according to a physical law mechanism that simulates effects of magnetism and elasticity.

9. A method of providing a visual thesaurus, the method comprising:

receiving a selected term;

obtaining word, meaning and relationship information regarding the selected term;

displaying information including a plurality of meanings of the word connected to the selected term in a directed graph;

wherein the plurality of meanings are depicted as nodes and the selected term is positioned in the center of the directed graph.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

displaying synonyms of each the plurality of different meanings of the selected word connected to the respective nodes.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the nodes are color coded according to a part of speech of the meaning of the nodes.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

displaying the directed graph in three-dimensional format.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

displaying terms related to the selected term and corresponding relationship information.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

displaying listings of the plurality of meanings of the selected term categorized by parts of speech.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

imparting motion to the displayed information.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein motion is imparted to the displayed information according to a physical law mechanism that simulates effects of magnetism and elasticity.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein the display entities include terms in a plurality of different languages.

18. A method of providing a visual thesaurus comprising:

displaying a first level of information including a word and a plurality of meanings of the word;

displaying at least one further level of information including terms related to at least a portion of the plurality of meanings of the word.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

displaying relationships between the further level of information and the first level of information.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the relationships may be one of a:

synonym, antonym, type of, pertains to, participle of, derived from, part of, made of, attribute, entails, verb group, see-also, and is similar to.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the further level of information includes terms of a plurality of different languages.