GRAPHICAL FLASH VIEW OF DOCUMENTS FOR DATA NAVIGATION ON A TOUCH-SCREEN DEVICE

• US 20110161845A1
• Filed: 12/31/2009
• Published: 06/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: STALLINGS, Heath, HWANG, Sok Y.
• Granted Patent: US 9,189,500 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/762
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/532 Query formulation, e.g. graphical querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor

Abstract

Content may be displayed on a display of a device as part of a graphical interface in which the content is divided into categories or sections. A content item representing a particular group of content items, such as a group corresponding to a category, may be graphically “flashed” to the user as the user pans or scrolls through content. In particular implementation, a computing device may determine a group of active content items corresponding to a current navigation point of a set of content items, determine a representative content item from the group of active content items, and present an area displaying the representative content item.

Claims

1. A computing device-implemented method comprising:

retrieving, by the computing device, an identification of a set of content items in response to a request for information from a user of the computing device;

providing, on a display associated with the computing device, a graphical interface to present the set of content items to the user;

determining, by the computing device, a group of active content items corresponding to a current navigation point of the set of content items in the graphical interface;

determining, by the computing device, a representative content item from the group of active content items;

presenting, on the graphical interface, an area displaying the representative content item; and

repeatedly determining, by the computing device, the group of active content items and the representative content item in response to changing of the current navigation point by the user of the computing device.

2. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, where the representative content item is selected based on a type of content items from the group of active content items.

3. The computing device-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining the representative content item as a randomly selected content item that matches the type of content item that is most prevalent in the group of active content items.

4. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, where the representative content item is selected based on a user generated list of possible representative content items or an analysis of the content of the content items in the group of active content items.

5. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a plurality of selectable graphic tabs on the graphical interface, each tab corresponding to a subset of the set of content items;

detecting a selection of one of the graphic tabs based on a gesture made by a user of the computing-device; and

determining the group of active content items based on the selected tab.

6. The computing device-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising:

visually distinguishing the selected one of the graphic tabs

7. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a slider bar on the graphical interface, the slider bar controlling the current navigation point in the set of content items.

8. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

launching an application associated with the representative content item in response to selection, by the user, of the area displaying the representative content item.

9. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving content items from a remote server in response to selection of the area displaying the representative content item.

10. The computing device-implemented method of claim 9, where the remote server is located over a wide area network.

11. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, where the group of active content items that correspond to the current navigation point is determined in response to user interaction with the computing device through the graphical interface.

12. A device comprising:

a touch-screen display;

a memory to store programming instruction; and

a processor coupled to the memory and the touch-screen display, the processor executing the programming instructions to;

retrieve an identification of a set of content items in response to a user request for information,

determine a group of active content items that are selected from the set of content items and that correspond to a current navigation point in the set of content items;

determine a representative content item from the group of active content items;

display, on the touch-screen display, a graphical interface including an area displaying the representative content item;

detect user input, through the graphical interface, indicating a change in the current navigation point in the set of content items; and

update, in response to detection of a change in the current navigation point, the determination of the representative content item and the graphical interface including the area displaying the representative content item.

13. The device of claim 12, where the representative content item is selected based on a type of content items from the group of active content items.

14. The device of claim 13, where the processor further executes the programming instructions to:

determine the representative content item as a selected content item that matches the type of content item that is most prevalent in the group of active content items.

15. The device of claim 12, where the representative content item is selected based on a user generated list of possible representative content items or an analysis of the content of the content items in the group of active content items.

16. The device of claim 12, where the processor further executes the programming instructions to:

display a plurality of selectable graphic tabs on the graphical interface, each tab corresponding to a subset of the set of content items;

detect a selection of one of the graphic tabs based on a gesture made by the user of the computing-device; and

determine the group of active content items based on the selected tab.

17. The device of claim 12, where the device includes a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, a personal computer, or a laptop computer.

18. The device of claim 12, where the processing unit further executes the programming instructions to:

retrieve the content items from a remote server in response to the detected selection of the one of the graphic tabs.

19. The device of claim 17, where the remote server is located over a wide area network.

20. The device of claim 13, where the content items includes at least one of multi-media files, documents, or photos.

21. A device comprising:

means for determining a group of active content items corresponding to a current navigation point in a graphical interface;

means for determining a representative content item from the group of active content items;

means for displaying the representative content item in a portion of the graphical interface;

means for updating, in response to a change in the current navigation point in the graphical interface, the determination of the representative content item;

means for displaying a plurality of selectable graphic tabs on the graphical interface, each tab corresponding to a subset of the set of content items;

means for detecting a selection of one of the graphic tabs based on a gesture made by a user of the computing-device; and

means for determining the group of active content items based on the selected tab.

22. The device of claim 21, where the device includes a mobile phone.