SEMANTIC NAVIGATION THROUGH OBJECT COLLECTIONS

• US 20130111413A1
• Filed: 11/02/2011
• Published: 05/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Glaza, Ted G., Mahmood, Hamid, Adams, Terry A., Sibal, Vincent Paul, Hillberg, Michael John, Hohn, Matthew Jake, Devatha, Vijay
• Granted Patent: US 9,268,848 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/854
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04812 Interaction techniques based on cursor appearance or behaviour, e.g. being affected by the presence of displayed objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/145 related to small screens

Abstract

Embodiments are directed to semantically navigating a data collection and to providing custom data mappings for a semantic group of data items. In one scenario, a computer system displays various data items of a data collection on a data presentation interface of a software application user interface. The user interface receives a first user input indicating that a semantic interface is to be displayed in the software application user interface, and displays the semantic interface which includes semantic headers that identify groups of data items. The user interface then receives a second user input that selects at least one of the semantic headers to display its corresponding group of data items and navigates the data presentation interface to the group of data items corresponding to the selected semantic header.

Claims

1. At a computer system including at least one processor and a memory, in a computer networking environment including a plurality of computing systems, a computer-implemented method for semantically navigating a data collection, the method comprising:

an act of displaying one or more data items of a data collection on a data presentation interface of a software application user interface;

an act of receiving a first user input indicating that a semantic interface is to be displayed in the software application user interface;

an act of displaying the semantic interface, the semantic interface including one or more semantic headers identifying one or more groups of data items;

an act of receiving a second user input that selects at least one of the semantic headers to display its corresponding group of data items; and

an act of navigating the data presentation interface to the group of data items corresponding to the selected semantic header.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first user input comprises at least one of the following:

a touch gesture, a keyboard input, a mouse gesture and a pen gesture.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the semantic interface is displayed in place of the data presentation interface.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the semantic interface is superimposed over the data presentation interface.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the developer of the software application provides the semantic headers for the application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the data items of the data collection are grouped according to one or more criteria.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a semantic navigation extension is added to a second, different software application to allow semantic navigation of the second, different application.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the semantic navigation extension provides a semantic interface in addition to the software application'"'"'s default user interface.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of semantic interfaces are provided, each semantic interface providing a different level of data item detail.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising providing a control that allows the user to zoom between the plurality of semantic interfaces.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein at least one semantic interface shows data headings for the data items at that level of detail.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein at least one semantic interface shows metadata for the data items at that level of detail.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the data items in the data collection are organized hierarchically, and wherein navigating the data presentation interface comprises navigating the data items according to the hierarchy.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein a third user input dynamically selects a new criteria on which the data items are to be sorted in the semantic interface.

15. A computer program product for implementing a method for providing custom data mappings for a semantic group of data items, the computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the computing system, cause the computing system to perform the method, the method comprising:

an act of receiving a first user input that maps one or more data items from a data presentation interface to a group of data items in a semantic interface;

an act of receiving a second user input indicating that a semantic interface is to be displayed in the software application user interface;

an act of determining which data items were being displayed when the second user input was received;

based on the determination of which data items were being displayed when the second user input was received, an act of indicating to the software application which group of data items is to be displayed in the semantic interface; and

an act of displaying the indicated group of data items in the semantic interface.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the data items in the group of data items are virtualized such that only a portion of the group is loaded into memory.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the user input provides mappings solely for those data items that are loaded into memory.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein upon receiving a third user input that selects one or more data items presented in the semantic interface, the data items selected by the user are dynamically loaded into memory.

19. A computer system comprising the following:

one or more processors;

system memory;

one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the computing system to perform a method for semantically navigating a data collection, the method comprising the following;

an act of displaying one or more data items of a data collection on a data presentation interface of a software application user interface;

an act of providing an extension to the software application that allows semantic navigation through the data collection;

an act of receiving a first user input indicating that a semantic interface is to be displayed in the software application user interface, as provided by the software application extension;

an act of displaying the semantic interface, the semantic interface including one or more semantic headers identifying one or more groups of data items;

an act of receiving a second user input that selects at least one of the semantic headers to display its corresponding group of data items; and

an act of navigating the data presentation interface to the group of data items corresponding to the selected semantic header.

20. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the semantic interface is provided in addition to the software application'"'"'s default user interface, such that the semantic interface is at least partially displayed in place of the data presentation interface.