Systems and methods for semantically zooming information

• US 20060271887A1
• Filed: 05/24/2005
• Published: 11/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Bier, Eric Allan, Newberger, Alan Frederick
• Granted Patent: US 7,552,398 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/866
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

Techniques are presented to semantically zoom information to fit within a bounded display space. A bounded display space optionally constrained by size or shape is determined. Semantically coherent portions of information to be displayed within the bounded space are determined. Transformation rules are applied to the portion of the information to be displayed to produce a plurality of different length representations. A store of semantic zoom level information associates combinations of the different length portion representations. A desired number of information elements to be displayed within the bounded display space is determined. Iterations over the store of semantic zoom information determine combinations of different length representations that fit within the bounded display space.

Claims

1. A method for semantically zooming information for display comprising the steps of:

determining information to display;

determining the display area;

determining a plurality of sections of the display information each associated with characteristic information;

determining different length representations of each section based on the characteristic information; and

determining a semantic zoom of the display information based on a bounded display area, and the different length representations of each section.

2. The method of claim 1, in which the semantic zooming is based on at least one of:

the size and the shape of the bounded display area.

3. The method of claim 2, in which a combination of different length representations is selected to fit within a plurality of lines defining the shape of the bounded display area.

4. The method of claim 1, in which the display information is at least one of:

related information;

linked information;

hierarchically linked and uniform resource locator (URL) information.

5. The method of claim 1, in which the display information is at least one of:

reference, descriptive and bibliographic information.

6. The method of claim 4, in which the display information is at least one of:

citation information and database information.

7. The method of claim 4, in which the information is stored in at least one of:

a database, a formatted string, a BibTex formatted string, an XML file, a printed page, an image document, a digital document, and an in-memory document.

8. The method of claim 6, in which the sections include at least one of:

authors, editors, translators, title, source, volume, number, pages, month, day, year, publisher, location, ISBN number, author'"'"'s organization, and uniform resource locator.

9. The method of claim 1, in which representations of sections are determined based on transformations of the section information.

10. The method of claim 9, in which the transformations are at least one of:

deleting information;

adding information and changing information.

11. The method of claim 9, in which the transformations operate on at least one of:

characters, words and phrases.

12. The method of claim 11, in which the transformations create at least one of:

acronyms and abbreviations.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining combinations of section representations arranged in a storage structure in which each record differs from the prior records and following records by a level.

14. The method of claim 13, in which the records are monotonically increasing;

15. The method of claim 13, in which the records are monotonically decreasing;

16. The method of claim 13, in which the combinations are based on user interest.

35. A user interface for use with a computer, the user interface comprising:

an input means for accepting input from the user;

a display for displaying information;

a processor that dynamically retrieves information from an information repository based on user input; and

which semantically zooms the retrieved information based on the method of claim 1 to fit within the display.

36. The method of claim 1, in which different length representations that map to the same semantic zoom of the display information are disambiguated by adding a visual element to the different length representation.

37. The method of claim 36, in which the visual element is based on the display information.

17. A system for semantically zooming information for display comprising:

an input/output circuit that receives information to display;

a memory;

a processor that determines a display area;

a plurality of sections of the information to be displayed, each section associated with characteristic information;

different length representations of each section based on the characteristic information; and

which determines a semantically zoomed display of the information based on a bounded display area, and the different length representation of each section.

18. The system of claim 17, in which the semantic zooming is based on at least one of:

the size and the shape of the bounded display area.

19. The system of claim 18, in which a combination of different length representations is selected to fit within a plurality of lines defining the shape of the bounded display area.

20. The system of claim 17, in which the display information is at least one of:

related information;

linked information;

hierarchically linked and uniform resource locator (URL) information.

21. The system of claim 17, in which the display information is at least one of:

reference, descriptive and bibliographic information.

22. The system of claim 20, in which the display information is at least one of:

citation information and database information.

23. The system of claim 20, in which the information is stored in at least one of:

a database, a formatted string, a BibTex formatted string, an XML file, a printed page, an image document, a digital document, an and in-memory document.

24. The system of claim 22, in which the sections include at least one of:

authors, editors, translators, title, source, volume, number, pages, month, day, year, publisher, location;

, ISBN number, author'"'"'s organization, and uniform resource locator.

25. The system of claim 17, in which the processor determines representations of sections based on transformations of the section information.

26. The system of claim 25, in which the transformations are at least one of:

deleting information;

adding information and changing information.

27. The system of claim 25, in which the transformations operate on at least one of:

characters, words and phrases.

28. The system of claim 27, in which the transformations create at least one of:

acronyms and abbreviations.

29. The system of claim 17, in which the processor determines combinations of section representations arranged in a storage structure, in which each record differs from prior records and following records by a level.

30. The system of claim 29, in which the records are monotonically increasing;

31. The system of claim 29, in which the records are monotonically decreasing;

32. The system of claim 29, in which the combinations are based on user interest.

38. The system of claim 17, in which different length representations that map to the same semantic zoom of the display information are disambiguated by adding a visual element to the different length representation.

39. The system of claim 38, in which the visual element is based on the display information.

33. Computer readable storage medium comprising:

computer readable program code embodied on the computer readable storage medium, the computer readable program code usable to program a computer for semantically zooming information for display comprising the steps of;

determining information to display;

determining the size of the display area;

determining a plurality of sections of the display information each associated with characteristic information;

determining different length representations of each section based on the characteristic information;

determining a semantic zoom of the display information based on a bounded display area, and the different length representation of each section.

34. A carrier wave encoded to transmit a control program, useable to program a computer semantically zooming information for display, to a device for executing the program, the control program comprising:

instructions for determining information to display;

instructions for determining the size of the display area;

instructions for determining a plurality of sections of the display information each associated with characteristic information;

instructions for determining different length representations of each section based on the characteristic information;

instructions for determining a semantic zoom of the display information based on a bounded display area, and the different length representation of each section.