SEARCH AND PRESENTATION ENGINE

• US 20100198815A1
• Filed: 01/27/2010
• Published: 08/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Q-Sensei Corp.
• Original Assignee: Q-Sensei Corp.
• Inventors: Poston, Timothy, Raghavan, Raghu, Poston, David, Fenton, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,438,180 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/956 Hierarchical
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A contents display and search system for navigating and searching and exploring a collection of objects includes a database of Attributes; each of the Attributes being associated with one or more objects, and a database of Kinds, each Kind being associated with one or more Attributes. When a user enters a search query including at least one Attribute, an object is tested to determine whether it has Attributes of the Kind corresponding to the Kind of the at least one specified Attribute before function testing is performed. Search and contents investigation results are presented in a hierarchical format in which Kinds and Attributes rather than objects, are displayed until the search or content type is further specified by selecting additional Kinds and/or Attributes such that the number of objects satisfying the specified search is below a threshold. User interaction modifies the hierarchical order of Kinds and Attributes in the display.

Claims

1. A computerized method for searching for objects comprising the steps of:

(a) assigning a plurality of Attributes to each of a plurality of objects in a collection;

(b) assigning each of the Attributes to a Kind;

(c) receiving a search query including at least one Attribute specified by a user;

(d) displaying a list of Kinds associated with Attributes specified by the user if a number of objects having Attributes specified by the user is greater than a predetermined object list length;

(e) receiving a specification of a Kind from the list of Kinds displayed in the previous step from the user;

(f) displaying a list of Attributes assigned to the Kind specified by the user;

(g) repeating steps (d)-(f) until the number of objects having Attributes specified by the user is less than the predetermined object list length; and

(h) displaying a list of objects having Attributes specified by the user.