Semantic Zoom Linguistic Helpers

• US 20130067399A1
• Filed: 09/09/2011
• Published: 03/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Elliott, Brendan D., Wautier, Marc, Kaplan, Michael S., Leung, Kwong K.
• Granted Patent: US 9,557,909 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/800
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

Semantic zoom techniques are described. In one or more implementations, techniques are described that may be utilized by a user to navigate to content of interest. These techniques may also include a variety of different features, such as to support semantic swaps and zooming “in” and “out.” These techniques may also include a variety of different input features, such as to support gestures, cursor-control device, and keyboard inputs. A variety of other features are also supported as further described in the detailed description and figures.

Claims

1. A method implemented by a computing device, the method comprising:

abstracting a plurality of items to be displayed as specified by an application by;

determining groups to be used to represent content in a zoomed view of a semantic swap; and

determining a first letter of each of the items to be represented in the zoomed view; and

responsive to receipt of an input to initiate a semantic swap, replacing a view of the items with representations of the determined groups in the zoomed view.

2. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the determined groups represent an alphabet that is used to describe the items.

3. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the abstracting includes generation of alphabet tables to form the groups.

4. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the abstracting includes use of a Latin alphabet with non-Latin alphabets to form the groups.

5. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the abstracting is performed to group archaic or uncommon letters with a previous letter.

6. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the abstracting is performed to treat Latin letter-like symbols according to the letters included in the symbol to group the symbols.

7. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the abstracting includes width normalization.

8. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the abstracting includes use of a locale override table.

9. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the abstracting includes use of a stroke count sort to return a group for each number of strokes, a radical sort to return groups for Chinese character semantic components, or a phonetic sort to return by first letter of a phonetic reading.

10. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the abstracting returns groups for an initial Jamo letter in a Hangul syllable for items in Korean.

11. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the abstracting and the replacing are performed as part of execution of an operating system by the computing device.

12. A method implemented by a computing device, the method comprising:

examining a manifest associated with an application to determine a phonetic name property for items to be represented in a list of scrollable items for the application; and

generating groups of the items and identifications for the groups of the items based on the phonetic name property.

13. A method as described in claim 12, wherein the identification for the groups are configured for use in a zoomed view in a semantic swap that is configured to replace a view of the items with the identifications of the groups.

14. A method as described in claim 13, wherein the semantic swap is configured to be initiated by a keyboard command, cursor control device, or gesture.

15. A method as described in claim 14, wherein the gesture is a pinch gesture.

16. A method implemented by a computing device, the method comprising:

abstracting a plurality of items to be displayed as specified by an application by;

normalizing a first visible glyph of each of the items; and

stripping diacritics from the first visible glyph of each of the items; and

responsive to receipt of an input to initiate a semantic swap, replacing a view of the items with the abstractions in a zoomed view.

17. A method as described in claim 16, wherein the normalizing includes normalizing for an upper case, diacritic, width, or Kana type.

18. A method as described in claim 16, wherein the stripping includes generating a sort key, looking if a diacritic is to be treated as a diacritic or a letter, and combining codepoints responsive to a determination that the diacritic is to be treated as a diacritic.

19. A method as described in claim 16, wherein the semantic swap is configured to be initiated by a keyboard command, cursor control device, or gesture.

20. A method as described in claim 19, wherein the gesture is a pinch gesture.