SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMPROVING THE NAVIGATION OF COMPLEX VISUALIZATIONS FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED

• US 20080163123A1
• Filed: 12/29/2006
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LinkedIn Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bernstein, Howard B.
• Granted Patent: US 7,765,496 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/853
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/008 using visual presentation of the information for the partially sighted

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method for improving the navigation of complex visualizations on a computer display for the visually impaired persons to toggle between objects or nodes. An object or node may be a square, a circle or other object which a display screen may show. The objects or nodes have characteristics which may include a name which indicates the name of the node, a direction which indicates the direction of the next node to progress to (along an arc), priority which indicates the priority that the node has with respect to other nodes, properties which indicates the certain properties of the node, and operation which indicates the operation to be performed. The system has a user indicator for indicating to the visually impaired user the characteristics of the objects or nodes which are connected by arcs. The node or object characteristics are informed to the user by the indicator to allow the user to toggle from one node to the other along the arc route. The system has a control center which has a receiver for receiving the toggle commands and node characteristics from each node. The toggle command moves a selector (which selects which object is being acted upon—sometimes, for visually unimpaired people, the selected object is shown in bold or a distinct color) to the next node according to the characteristics. The receiver also passes the node characteristics to a parser. The parser parses the node characteristics and passes it on to the director for determining the next step. The director examines the characteristics, such as name, direction, properties, and operations, and indicates to the user the characteristics of the node—generally by audible means but not so limited. This allows the visually impaired user to ascertain where he/she on the display. This is generally done by way of an audible device but could be accomplished in other ways.

Claims

1. A system for improving the navigation of complex visualizations for the visually impaired person, the system comprising:

a display having a graph, the graph having one or more nodes or objects which may be selected by a user for the user to take action upon the selected node or object;

a control center control having a selector toggle switch for toggling between the nodes or objects;

each of the nodes having characteristics and passing the characteristics to the control center;

whereas the control center, upon receiving the characteristics, indicates to the user the characteristics via a non-visual message.

2. The system of claim 1 having arcs connecting some nodes to one another which have some relationship with one another which may be determined by the characteristics such that a toggle command will select the next priority node.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the control center receives a toggle command and the system toggles to the next selected node based upon the directivity information.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the control center characteristics include a description of the node or object which is passed to the user via a non-visual message.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the characteristics include names of the node or object which are passed to the user via a non-visual message.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the characteristics include roles of the nodes or objects which are passed to the user via a non-visual message.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising the step of moving to the next selected node according to the arc'"'"'s direction upon receiving the toggle command.

9. The method of claim 6 further comprising the step of selecting a property for changing by toggling to that node and changing the property.

7. A method in a system for improving the navigation of complex visualizations for the visually impaired, the system having a display for illustrating nodes or objects, each node having characteristics, the system having a toggle switch for receiving toggle commands from a user for toggling between characteristics so that the user may select the characteristic to act upon, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving the characteristics of the nodes;

receiving toggle commands from the toggle switch to toggle between the characteristics;

indicating to the user the characteristic selected in a non-visual manner; and

receiving a command to act upon the characteristic.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the toggle command is utilized by a left or right cursor to indicate directivity.

12. The computer program product of claim 10 further comprising the step of moving to the next selected node according to the arc'"'"'s direction upon receiving the toggle command.

13. The computer program product of claim 10 further comprising the step of selecting a property for changing by toggling to that node and changing the property.

11. A computer program product in a computer readable medium having a method thereon for operating in a system for improving the navigation of complex visualizations for the visually impaired, the system having a display for illustrating nodes or objects, each node having characteristics, the system having a toggle switch for receiving toggle commands from a user for toggling between characteristics so that the user may select the characteristic to act upon, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving the characteristics of the nodes;

receiving toggle commands from the toggle switch to toggle between the characteristics;

indicating to the user the characteristic selected in a non-visual manner; and

receiving a command to act upon the characteristic.

14. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the toggle command is utilized by a left or right cursor to indicate directivity.