File management system employing time line based representation of data

• US 20060155757A1
• Filed: 01/12/2005
• Published: 07/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ball, Steven J., Williams, Shane F.
• Granted Patent: US 7,716,194 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/444 Spatial browsing, e.g. 2D maps, 3D or virtual spaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/447 Temporal browsing, e.g. timeline
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5846 using extracted text
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/915 Image

Abstract

The subject invention provides a unique system and method that facilitates management and navigation of various data objects by making use of a unique time-line based navigation tool. In particular, objects can organized into a plurality of bands based on their respective subject matter. Each band can be created to designate a particular topic. Objects are organized within the appropriate bands based in part on a time parameter such as a time or date that the object was created, for example. The navigation tool allows a user to navigate or browse through the bands and objects according to a desired time parameter or range of time. Zooming and other browsing options are available to the user to view objects of interest at varying levels of detail. The objects are represented as ASCII thumbnails that are operational. Thus, the content of any object can be modified directly via the thumbnail.

Claims

1. A data management system comprising:

one or more memory stores that stores a plurality of objects along with a time parameter associated with each object and at least one other metadata value;

an object management component that facilitates annotating, clustering, labeling of the objects and that organizes the objects into a band-view time-based structure for rapid access and retrieval by a user, the band-view object structure comprising one or more bands relative to a time-line; and

a display component that displays the band-view time-based structure to the user and allows manipulation of the bands and objects as desired by the user.

2. The system of claim 1, the object management component comprises:

an annotation component that annotates the objects with metadata relating to at least one of band information, object information, or user information.

a clustering component that clusters at least two objects based in part on the time parameter associated with the two objects to form object clusters; and

a cluster tagging component that labels the object clusters with a name representative of the cluster.

3. The system of claim 1, the object management component organizes the plurality of objects into one or more bands based on a subject matter of the object and band and within each band, organizes the objects based on the time parameter of the respective objects such that objects within each band appear in a chronological time-based manner consistent with the time-line.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a find component that looks for objects in the one or more databases based at least upon one find term, the find term correlating to at least one metadata value selected by the user.

5. The system of claim 4, the find component provides one or more found objects arranged in a new band according to the time parameter associated with each found object, wherein the band behaves similar to any other bands.

6. The system of claim 1, the object management component comprises an artificial intelligence component that automatically performs at least one of the following:

annotation of objects;

clustering of objects into one or more clusters;

naming the one or more clusters;

identifying duplicated objects;

identifying and labeling related objects;

identifying objects that are from a similar edit root; and

identifying similarities and redundancies among a plurality of memory stores and merging the stores where they exist.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component that readily converts the band-view time-based structure into a tree-view structure of the objects to provide an alternate view of the bands and their content.

8. A method that facilitates data management in a time-based manner comprising:

storing a plurality of objects in at least one memory store;

organizing the plurality of objects based at least in part on a subject matter and a time parameter associated with the respective objects into a band-view time-based structure, the band-view structure comprising any number of bands stacked relative to a time-line; and

displaying the band-view structure to a user to facilitate managing the objects and the bands.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising displaying any objects within each band as at least one of ASCII-, image-, audio-, and video- thumbnails, wherein the objects can be accessed and opened directly from the band.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising modifying at least one of the plurality of objects organized in at least one band in part by clicking on the respective thumbnail of the object to enlarge the object for modification without opening a separate application to access and modify the object.

11. The method of claim 8, organizing the plurality of objects into the band-view time-based structure comprises annotating the objects with metadata.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising clustering at least two objects into a cluster based in part on the metadata of the two objects and labeling the cluster to readily identify content associated with the cluster.

13. The method of claim 8, organizing the plurality of objects into the band-view time-based structure comprises organizing the plurality of objects into one or more bands based on a subject matter of the object and band and within each band, organizing the objects based on the time parameter of the respective objects such that objects within each band appear in a chronological time-based manner consistent with the time-line.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising finding related objects by selecting one or more find terms to locate the objects.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising introducing a new band for any found objects and displaying the new band to the user, wherein the new band behaves similar to any other band in the band-view structure.

16. The method of claim 8, further comprising displaying a tree-view structure orientation of the band-view time-based structure to provide an alternative perspective of the bands without the time parameter to the user, whereby the tree-view is displayed in at least one of the following manners:

simultaneously with the band-view or as an alternative view to the band-view via a toggle command.

17. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

analyzing at least one of the following;

a relative amount of content included within each band per time parameter or amount of memory consumed by the content in each band per time parameter; and

displaying the relative amounts in each respective band.

18. A system that facilitates data management in a time-based manner comprising:

means for storing a plurality of objects in at least one memory store;

means for organizing the plurality of objects based at least in part on a subject matter and a time parameter associated with the respective objects into a band-view time-based structure, the band-view structure comprising any number of bands stacked relative to a time-line; and

means for displaying the band-view structure to a user to facilitate managing the objects and the bands.

19. The system of claim 18, means for organizing the plurality of objects into the band-view time-based structure comprises organizing the plurality of objects into one or more bands based on a subject matter of the object and band and within each band, organizing the objects based on the time parameter of the respective objects such that objects within each band appear in a chronological time-based manner consistent with the time-line.

20. The system of claim 18, further comprising means for finding related objects by selecting one or more find terms to locate the objects and means for displaying any found objects in a new band.