VISUALIZATION AND INTERACTION MODELS

• US 20080307334A1
• Filed: 06/08/2007
• Published: 12/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Chaudhri, Imran A., Louch, John O., Peyton, Eric Steven, Bumgarner, Timothy Wayne, Hynes, Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 8,473,859 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/764
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

Visual representations of system objects are associated, and one or more association characteristics of the associated visual representations are identified. Interaction models and/or visualization models are automatically selected from a plurality of interaction and/or visualization models based on the identified one or more association characteristic, and the selected interaction and/or visualization model is applied to the associated visual representations.

Claims

14. A computer readable medium storing instructions that are executable by a processing device, and upon such execution cause the processing device to:

create an association of visual representations of system objects;

identify one or more association characteristics of the associated visual representations;

identify a plurality of visualization models;

automatically select a visualization model from the plurality of visualization models based on the identified one or more association characteristics; and

applying the selected visualization model to the associated visual representations.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein:

the one or more association characteristics comprise a stack association, and wherein the associated visual representations are stack elements.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein upon execution the instructions cause the processing device to:

determine the number of stack elements in the stack association; and

automatically select the visualization model from a plurality of visualization models based on the number of stack elements.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein upon execution the instructions cause the processing device to:

select a first visualization model if the number of stack elements is less than a threshold; and

select a second visualization model if the number of stack elements is greater than the threshold.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein:

the one or more association characteristics comprise a group association, and wherein the associated visual representations are icons.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein upon execution the instructions cause the processing device to:

identify applications associated with the group association; and

automatically select an interaction model from a plurality of interaction models based on the associated applications.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein

the plurality of interaction models comprise a multiple application launching interaction model.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein

the plurality of interaction models comprise a reconciliation interaction model.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein

the first visualization model is a matrix visualization model;

and

the second visualization model is a fanning visualization model.

23-1. The method of claim 23, wherein:

creating an association of system objects comprises associating icons corresponding to the system objects.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein:

the one or more association characteristics comprise a group association.

30. The method of claim 28, comprising:

identifying a project associated with the group association; and

automatically selecting an interaction model from a plurality of interaction models based on the identified project.