Architecture and engine for time line based visualization of data

• US 20060156246A1
• 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 7,788,592 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/764
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/26 Visual data mining; Browsing structured data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/54 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/968 interface for database querying and retrieval

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 system that facilitates visualizing data comprising:

a data store comprising one or more objects;

a visualization component that organizes at least a subset of the objects from the data store into at least one band based at least in part upon each object'"'"'s time parameter to make the objects available for view by at least a user in a time-based manner; and

a display component that displays the one or more objects as organized in the at least one band.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising an annotation component that annotates the one or more objects with metadata, the metadata comprising a time parameter, object name, pathname of object, size of object, and information relating to content of the object.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a time-based navigation control that facilitates navigating among at least one of a plurality of bands or objects in the time-based manner.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a zooming component that adjusts an amount of detail on the display visible to the user at any one time.

5. The system of claim 4, the zooming component comprising one or more time-based zoom navigation controls to readily adjust the amount of detail visible to the user on the display.

6. The system of claim 4, the zooming component performs at least one of expanding or compressing at least one band at a time.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a parametric tracking component that measures at least one parameter associated with the objects organized at any one time parameter within each band and visualizes a parametric indicator to the user on the display, the parameters comprising size, density, and storage location.

8. The system of claim 7, the parametric tracking component is an object density tracking component that measures a number of objects organized at any one time parameter within the respective band and displays a density indicator to the user within the respective band.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a browsing component that navigates the user across data visible on the display via a plurality of bands shown thereon by employing at least one of the following:

at least one zoom navigation control, at least one band navigation control, and at least one time-based navigation control.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a filtering comprising that removes one or more objects from view in the band based in part on one or more filter terms.

11. The system of claim 10, the one or more filter terms are selected based at least in part on metadata associated with the band'"'"'s objects.

12. An object management and visualization method comprising:

populating at least one data store with a plurality of objects;

organizing at least a subset of the objects into at least one band based at least in part upon each object'"'"'s time parameter to facilitate making the objects available for view by a user in at least a time-based manner; and

displaying the one or more objects as organized in the at least one band.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising annotating at least a subset of the objects with metadata.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising navigating among at least one of a plurality of bands or objects in the time-based manner.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising selecting at least one object upon which to perform further action.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising at least one of zooming in or zooming out of at least one of an object or a band to alter an amount of detail visible to the user.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising measuring at least a relative number of objects organized at any one time parameter within each respective band to visualize at least one parametric value associated with the objects, the at least one parametric value comprising at least one of density, size, and storage location of the object.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining which objects to display next within any band when not all the objects are in view at once.

19. The method of claim 18, determining which objects to display next is based at least in part on how nearby the objects are to the display surface, wherein “

nearby”

is a function of an object'"'"'s level of importance.

20. An object management and visualization system comprising:

means for populating at least one data store with a plurality of objects;

means for organizing at least a subset of the objects into at least one band based at least in part upon each object'"'"'s time parameter to facilitate making the objects available for view by a user in at least a time-based manner;

means for displaying the one or more objects as organized in the at least one;

means for navigating among at least one of a plurality of bands or objects in the time-based manner;

means for at least one of zooming in or zooming out of at least one of an object or a band to alter an amount of detail visible to the user; and

means for measuring at least a relative number of objects organized at any one time parameter within each respective band to visualize at least one parametric value associated with the objects, the at least one parametric value comprising at least one of density, size, and storage location of the object.