INTERFACE FOR NAVIGATING INTERRELATED CONTENT HIERARCHY

• US 20090222769A1
• Filed: 02/29/2008
• Published: 09/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sloo, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,296,682 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/854
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/168 Details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems, e.g. browsing and visualisation, 2d or 3d GUIs query results presentation G06F16/156

Abstract

An interface allows navigation of a hierarchy of related content organized into a node tree. Each node may be associated with media content and navigation input may be received to navigate between the nodes. The interface includes a mechanism for viewing graphical data representing related content within the node tree. A user may provide input to navigate between nodes in the same hierarchy level or different hierarchy levels while graphical data for the selected node is provided in the interface.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for providing an interface, comprising:

retrieving data by a client from a server, the client capable of downloading digital media content that is part of a set of related digital media content, the data including graphical data and describing a hierarchical structure having two or more hierarchy levels for the set of digital media content;

providing an interface by the client, the interface including graphical information for two or more nodes in a first level of the hierarchal structure, the interface indicating that a first node of the two or more nodes is a currently selected node;

receiving navigation input by the client; and

providing the interface with graphical information for a first set of two or more nodes in a second level of the hierarchical structure in response to the navigation input.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein said step of receiving navigation input includes:

receiving a selection of an interface element by a user, the element associated with navigating to the parent node of the currently selected node.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein said step of receiving navigation input includes:

receiving a selection of an interface element by a user, the element associated with navigating to a default child node of the currently selected node.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving navigation input associated with graphical information within the same hierarchy level; and

providing the interface with a second graphical information associated with a second set of two or more nodes, the first set of nodes and second set of nodes having one or more overlapping nodes.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the second graphical information includes a shift in position of a portion of the graphical information for the first set of nodes.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the second graphical information includes an addition of graphical information for nodes contained in the second set of nodes and not contained in the first set of nodes.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the graphical information is provided in a linear collection of frames in the user interface.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 7, wherein the linear collection of frames is a horizontal row of frames.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8, wherein the frames are positioned in the horizontal row in order according to sequence information for each frame.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein said step of providing an interface by the client includes:

accessing a current node;

accessing a node table to determine one or more sibling nodes for the current node; and

identifying graphical information from the table and associated with each of the one or more sibling nodes.

11. One or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied on said processor readable storage devices, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

receiving node tree data for a set of digital content, the node tree data having a hierarchy with two or more levels of nodes;

constructing a table from the node tree data;

selecting a first current node;

identifying one or more peripheral nodes from the current node and the table;

constructing an interface to provide to a display device, the interface including a row of graphical information associated with a first current node and first set of one or more peripheral nodes, the graphical information for each first node positioned sequentially in the row according to a sequential relationship between the first nodes;

receiving input by the client with respect to the current node; and

re-constructing the interface to replace the row of graphical information associated with the current node and one or more peripheral nodes, with a second current node and second set of one or more peripheral nodes, the new nodes associated with a different hierarchy level than the first nodes and positioned sequentially in the row according to a sequential relationship between the second nodes.

12. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 11, wherein the two or more levels of nodes include a show segment level, episode level, and season level.

13. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 11, wherein the table includes one or more records for each node in the node tree data, each record including a node number for the particular node and node numbers for one or more peripheral nodes for the particular nodes.

14. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 11, wherein the table identifies graphical information for each node in the node tree data.

15. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 11, wherein said one or more processors are contained in a gaming console capable of retrieving digital media content over a network.

16. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 11, wherein the set of digital content is associated with seasons, episodes and segments of a television show.

17. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 16, wherein the graphical information for each node is an image representing the video content for a season, episode or segment associated with the node.

18. A system for providing an interface, comprising:

a communication interface for communicating with a server and a display device;

a storage device that includes a node table and image data;

an interface generation engine that retrieves node tree data and one or more images from a server and stores the node tree data and images in the storage device, identifies a current node and determines one or more sequentially neighboring nodes and at least one child or parent node from the node table, constructs an interface framework and populates the interface framework with images associated with the current node, sequentially neighboring nodes, and at least one parent or child node;

an input mechanism for receiving user input, the interface generation engine identifying the current node based on the user input; and

an interface rendering engine that renders the interface on the display device.

19. The system of claim 18 further comprising:

a gaming console for displaying video games and other video content on a remote display, the gaming console including the communication interface, storage device, interface generation engine, input mechanism and interface rendering engine.

20. The system of claim 18 further comprising:

a set top box for retrieving digital media content over a network and viewing the retrieved digital media content on a television set, the set top box including the communication interface, storage device, interface generation engine, input mechanism and interface rendering engine.