User interface for viewing clusters of images

• US 20070174790A1
• Filed: 01/23/2006
• Published: 07/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Li, Ming Jing, Ma, Wei-Ying, Deng, Kefeng, Jing, Feng, Zhang, Lei
• Granted Patent: US 7,644,373 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/838
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• 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: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning

Abstract

A method and system for providing a user interface for presenting images of clusters of an image search result is provided. The user interface system displays the search result in a cluster/view form using a cluster panel and a view panel. The cluster panel contains a cluster area for each cluster. The view panel may contain thumbnails of images of the search result in a list view or a mix view. When a user selects a cluster area from the cluster panel, the user interface system displays a list view of thumbnails for that cluster in the view panel. The user interface system may display a thumbnail list near a cluster area of the cluster panel. The thumbnail list contains mini-thumbnails of the images of the selected cluster. The user interface system may also display a detail view of an image in the view panel when a user selects an image.

Claims

I_We. I/We claim:

1. A method for presenting an image search result having clusters of images, the method comprising:

displaying in a cluster panel a cluster indication of each cluster, the cluster indication including thumbnails of multiple images from the cluster; and

displaying in a view panel thumbnails of images of one of the clusters.

2. The method of claim 1 including when a user indicates to change views, displaying in the view panel thumbnails of images from multiple clusters wherein the images are in an image relevance to cluster order.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein when a user selects a cluster indication of the cluster panel, displaying in the view panel thumbnails of the images of the selected cluster.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein when a user selects a thumbnail of the view panel, displaying within the view panel a detail view of the image of the selected thumbnail.

5. The method of claim 4 including displaying along with the detail view a thumbnail scroll list of the thumbnails of the view panel when the user selected the thumbnail.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein when a user selects a cluster indication from the cluster panel, displaying a thumbnail list of thumbnails of the cluster near the selected cluster indication.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein when a user selects a thumbnail from the thumbnail list, displaying a detail view of the image of the selected thumbnail.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the thumbnails of the images are displayed in the view panel in an order based on relevance of the image to an image query.

9. A method for presenting an image search result having clusters of images, the method comprising:

displaying in a cluster panel a cluster indication of each cluster, the cluster indication including thumbnails of multiple images of the cluster; and

displaying in the view panel thumbnails of images from multiple clusters wherein the images are in an image relevance to cluster order.

10. The method of claim 9 including when a user indicates to change views, displaying in a view panel thumbnails of images of only one cluster.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein when a user selects a cluster indication of the cluster panel, displaying in the view panel thumbnails of the images of the selected cluster.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein when a user selects a thumbnail of the view panel, displaying within the view panel a detail view of the image of the selected thumbnail.

13. The method of claim 12 including displaying along with the detail view a thumbnail scroll list of the thumbnails of the view panel when the user selected the thumbnail.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein when a user selects a cluster indication from the cluster panel, displaying a thumbnail list of thumbnails of the cluster near the selected cluster indication.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein when a user selects a thumbnail from the thumbnail list, displaying a detail view of the image of the selected thumbnail.

16. A method for presenting an image search result having clusters of images, the method comprising:

displaying in a cluster panel a cluster indication of each cluster, the cluster indication including thumbnails of multiple images from the cluster; and

when a user selects a cluster indication from the cluster panel, displaying a thumbnail list of thumbnails of the cluster near the selected cluster indication.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein when a user selects a thumbnail from the thumbnail list, displaying a detail view of the image of the selected thumbnail.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein when a user selects multiple thumbnails from the thumbnail list, displaying thumbnails of the images of the selected thumbnails in a view panel.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein when a user selects multiple thumbnails from the thumbnail list, displaying a detail view of an image of a selected thumbnail along a thumbnail scroll bar of thumbnails of images of the selected thumbnails.

20. The method of claim 16 including displaying thumbnails of images in a view panel.