SYSTEM AND PROCESS FOR PROVIDING DYNAMIC COMMUNICATION ACCESS AND INFORMATION AWARENESS IN AN INTERACTIVE PERIPHERAL DISPLAY

• US 20100199190A1
• Filed: 04/16/2010
• Published: 08/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gupta, Anoop, Cadiz, Jonathan J., Jancke, Gavin, Venolia, Gina
• Granted Patent: US 8,407,620 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

The system and method of the present invention provides peripheral awareness of information to a user. Once the information to be provided is determined or specified, it is automatically tracked or watched via at least one conventional communications interface for accessing one or more conventional communications sources. Current information is then automatically dynamically provided in an interactive peripheral display which minimizes any potential distraction to the user. The tickets are sharable among users, and may be copied, cut, pasted, saved, transmitted, dragged and dropped from web pages, etc., like any other electronic file using conventional techniques.

Claims

1. A computer executable method of displaying dynamic information in a peripheral awareness display area, said method comprising:

displaying to a first user a thumbnail in the peripheral awareness display area on a display of a computing device, said thumbnail comprising a ticket representative of dynamic information and a viewer for displaying the dynamic information represented by the ticket, wherein the ticket is transferable between the first user and at least one additional user;

receiving the dynamic information represented by the ticket at the computing device;

displaying to the first user the received dynamic information represented by the ticket in the viewer of the thumbnail in the peripheral awareness display area on the display;

displaying to the first user in the peripheral awareness display area on the display of the computing device summary information associated with a user-selected portion of the dynamic information represented by the ticket; and

displaying to the first user in the peripheral awareness display area on the display of the computing device more detailed information associated with a user-selected portion of the summary information.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the peripheral awareness display area is a sidebar window displayed along a peripheral portion of the display.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the display contains at least one other displayed element, the peripheral awareness display area always being displayed on top of the at least one other displayed element.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising configuring the peripheral awareness display area in one of a first state and a second state based on a command input, wherein the peripheral awareness display area is non-visible on the display in the first state and visible on the display in the second state.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the thumbnail is resizable, and the steps further comprise displaying a different amount of the dynamic information in the thumbnail based on the size of the thumbnail.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein content of the dynamic information displayed in the thumbnail is based on a priority of the dynamic information.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the peripheral awareness area is resizable, resizing of the thumbnail based on resizing of the peripheral awareness area.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring the dynamic information represented by the ticket of the thumbnail to identify when the dynamic information matches a predetermined criteria; and

outputting an alert notification when the dynamic information represented by the ticket of the thumbnail matches the predetermined criteria.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the alert notification comprises at least one of an audible alarm, a visible alert, and an automatically generated e-mail message.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein said computing device is configured to execute computer-executable instructions for:

monitoring the dynamic information represented by the ticket of the thumbnail to identify when the dynamic information matches a predetermined criteria; and

outputting an alert notification when the dynamic information represented by the ticket of the thumbnail matches the predetermined criteria.

10. A system for displaying dynamic information to a user in a peripheral awareness display area, said method comprising:

a display device; and

a computing device coupled to a data communication network, said computing device displaying dynamic information to the user in the peripheral awareness display via the display device, said computing device being configured to execute computer-executable instructions for;

displaying to a first user a thumbnail in the peripheral awareness display area, said thumbnail comprising a ticket representative of dynamic information and a viewer for displaying the dynamic information represented by the ticket, wherein the ticket is transferable between the first user and at least one additional user;

receiving the dynamic information represented by the ticket at the computing device via the data communication network;

displaying to the first user the received dynamic information represented by the ticket in the viewer of the thumbnail in the peripheral awareness display area;

displaying to the first user in the peripheral awareness display area summary information associated with a user-selected portion of the dynamic information represented by the ticket; and

displaying to the first user in the peripheral awareness display area more detailed information associated with a user-selected portion of the summary information.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the peripheral awareness display area provided by the computing device is a sidebar window displayed along a peripheral portion of the display.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the display provided by the computing device contains at least one other displayed element, the peripheral awareness display area always being displayed on top of the at least one other displayed element.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the computing devices configures the peripheral awareness display area in one of a first state and a second state based on a command input, wherein the peripheral awareness display area provided by the computing device is non-visible on the display in the first state and is visible on the display in the second state.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the thumbnail provided by the computing device is resizable, and the steps further comprise displaying a different amount of the dynamic information in the thumbnail based on the size of the thumbnail.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein content provided by the computing device of the dynamic information displayed in the thumbnail is based on a priority of the dynamic information.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the peripheral awareness area is resizable, resizing of the thumbnail based on resizing of the peripheral awareness area.

18. One or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon computer-executable components for displaying dynamic information to a user in one or more thumbnails in a peripheral awareness display area, said dynamic information received via a data communication network from one or more communications sources, said components comprising:

a user interface component displaying to a first user the one or more thumbnails in the peripheral awareness display area, each said thumbnail comprising a ticket representative of dynamic information and a viewer displaying the dynamic information represented by the ticket, wherein the ticket is transferable between the first user and at least one additional user, wherein the first user specifies particular information of the dynamic information;

a ticket manager component creating particular tickets for the particular information of the dynamic information specified by the first user, modifying particular tickets, or sharing particular tickets between the first user and at least one additional user, said ticket manager component providing a library of defined tickets for creation, modification, or sharing, wherein the ticket manager component pairs each particular ticket with a corresponding viewer for display as a thumbnail; and

an information and communication component dynamically accessing and interacting with one or more communications sources to dynamically provide dynamic information to the one or more thumbnails displayed in the peripheral awareness display area.

19. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 18, wherein said user interface component displays, in response to a selection by the first user of one of the one or more thumbnails displayed in the peripheral awareness display area, actionable expanded information that provides additional information for the dynamic information displayed in the selected thumbnail.

20. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 19, wherein the ticket manager component stores the particular tickets in a database, said database being accessible via the data communication network.