ATTRACTION-BASED DATA VISUALIZATION

• US 20120144309A1
• Filed: 12/02/2010
• Published: 06/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Zendler, Holger, Spieler, Benjamin, Gaertner, Nadine
• Granted Patent: US 8,775,955 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/739
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/26 Visual data mining; Browsing structured data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/961 Operator interface with visual structure or function dictated by intended use

Abstract

A plurality of digital resources are identified in a set of digital resources. An indication of a user selection of at least one criteria is received, the user selection received through a user interface. A degree of correlation is determined between each digital resource in the plurality and each of the criteria. Data is sent that is configured for use in presenting, in a window of the user interface, a plurality of graphical resource objects and at least one graphical attractor object, each graphical resource object representing a digital resource in the plurality of digital resources and each graphical attractor object representing one of the criteria. Each resource object is presented a distance from each attractor object, the distance based at least in part on the corresponding degree of correlation between the digital resource represented by the resource object and the criteria represented by the attractor object.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying a plurality of digital resources in a set of digital resources stored in at least one computer-readable storage medium;

receiving an indication of a user selection of at least one criteria, the user selection received through a user interface of a computing device;

determining, for each digital resource in the plurality of digital resources, a degree of correlation between the digital resource and each of the at least one criteria; and

sending data configured for use in presenting, in a window of the user interface of the computing device, a plurality of graphical resource objects and at least one graphical attractor object, each graphical resource object in the plurality of graphical resource objects representing a digital resource in the plurality of digital resources and each graphical attractor object representing one of the at least one criteria; and

wherein each resource object is presented a distance from each attractor object, the distance based at least in part on the corresponding degree of correlation between the digital resource represented by the resource object and the criteria represented by the attractor object.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device is a remote client computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein

at least a first and a second criteria are selected, the first criteria represented by a first attractor object and the second criteria represented by a second attractor object, and

each resource object is presented a first distance from the first attractor object, based on a corresponding degree of correlation between the digital resource represented by the resource object and the first criteria, and a second distance from the second attractor object, based on a corresponding degree of correlation between the digital resource represented by the resource object and the second criteria.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each attractor object models an attraction force applied to each resource object presented together with the attractor object, each attraction force having a magnitude based at least in part on the corresponding degree of correlation between the digital resource represented by the resource object and the criteria represented by the attractor object.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the attraction force of an attractor object is further based on a weighting of the criteria represented by the attractor object, wherein a higher weighting of a particular criteria corresponds to a higher attraction force of a particular attractor object, representing the particular criteria, on resource objects presented together with the particular attractor object.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein at least a first and a second criteria are selected and a first and a second attractor object presented with the resource objects, the first and second criteria having different weightings.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each criteria includes at least one value and the degrees of correlation between the digital resources and each criteria are each based, at least in part, on a correlation between the digital resource and the at least one value.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein each resource object is color-coded to represent a degree of correlation between the digital resource represented by the resource object and a criteria represented by an attractor object presented together with the resource object.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each resource object is color-coded to represent a value associated with the digital resource represented by the resource object, the value relevant to a criteria represented by an attractor object presented together with the resource object.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending data configured for use in presenting, in a window of the user interface of the computing device, a plurality of attractor objects corresponding to a plurality of different criteria available for selection by the user and presentation together with the plurality of resource objects; and

wherein the received indication of a user selection of at least one criteria corresponds to a user selection of at least one particular attractor object from the plurality of attractor objects, the particular attractor object representing the user-selected at least one criteria.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

identifying a set of common criteria based on the identified plurality of digital resources, the set of common criteria including at least one common criteria associated with at least two digital resources in the plurality of digital resources; and

wherein the plurality of attractor objects includes the set of common criteria.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of digital resources includes a plurality of business objects, each business object in the plurality of business objects including at least one of a set of attributes.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of digital resources includes a plurality of internet resources, including at least one webpage.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of digital resources are identified in response to a user search query, the plurality of digital resources identified as satisfying the search query.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein each attractor object is adapted to allow a user to change the position of the attractor object in the window of the user interface, wherein resource objects are adapted to automatically re-position in response to and consistent with the changed position of an attractor object.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending data defining starting positions of resource objects presented in the window of the user interface, wherein the plurality of resource objects are presented in the window according to the respective starting positions of the resource objects prior to the presentation of an attractor object in the window.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the starting positions are at least one of a random starting position, an ordered position based on a type of the digital resource represented by the corresponding resource object, and an order position based on an initial score for the digital resource represented by the corresponding resource object.

18. An article comprising a non-transitory, machine-readable storage device storing instructions operable to cause at least one processor to perform operations comprising:

identifying a plurality of digital resources in a set of digital resources stored in at least one computer-readable storage medium;

receiving an indication of a user selection of at least one criteria, the user selection received through a user interface of a computing device;

determining, for each digital resource in the plurality of digital resources, a degree of correlation between the digital resource and each of the at least one criteria; and

sending data configured for use in presenting, in a window of the user interface of the computing device, a plurality of graphical resource objects and at least one graphical attractor object, each graphical resource object in the plurality of graphical resource objects representing a digital resource in the plurality of digital resources and each graphical attractor object representing one of the at least one criteria; and

wherein each resource object is presented a distance from each attractor object, the distance based at least in part on the corresponding degree of correlation between the digital resource represented by the resource object and the criteria represented by the attractor object.

19. A system comprising:

a digital resource visualization system, including one or more computers having one or more computer storage devices storing instructions for causing the one or more computers to;

identify a plurality of digital resources in a corpus of digital resources;

receive an indication of a user selection of at least one criteria, the user selection received through a user interface of a computing device;

determine, for each digital resource in the plurality of digital resources, a degree of correlation between the digital resource and each of the at least one criteria; and

send data configured for use in presenting, in a window of the user interface of the computing device, a plurality of graphical resource objects and at least one graphical attractor object, each graphical resource object in the plurality of graphical resource objects representing a digital resource in the plurality of digital resources and each graphical attractor object representing one of the at least one criteria; and

wherein each resource object is presented a distance from each attractor object, the distance based at least in part on the corresponding degree of correlation between the digital resource represented by the resource object and the criteria represented by the attractor object.

20. The system of claim 19 further comprising a plurality of data repositories, each repository including at least one computer-readable storage device, the plurality of data repositories storing the corpus of digital resources.

21. The system of claim 20 further comprising a search engine operable to identify the plurality of digital resources in the corpus of digital resources as satisfying a search query.