SEMANTIC SEARCHING USING ZOOM OPERATIONS

• US 20140181645A1
• Filed: 12/21/2012
• Published: 06/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: MACBETH, STEVE
• Granted Patent: US 9,576,049 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/249
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/34 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• 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: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191

Abstract

Computer storage media, computerized methods, and systems for semantically navigating between content using zoom operations, as well as other user-initiated operations, are provided. The zoom operations include an open-pinch gesture (zoom in) and a closed-pinch gesture (zoom out) physically applied to a touch-screen display of a client device, where the touch-screen display presents a document with original content. When one or more of the zoom operations have been detected as being performed upon a targeted portion of the original content, new content that is relevant to the targeted content is retrieved, as opposed to simply expanding or contracting the original content within a display area of the touch-screen display. The document is transitioned to a view with representations of the new content organized according to a format, where the format is dictated by a type of the one or more zoom operations being performed.

Claims

1. One or more computer storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed, perform a method for semantically navigating between content using zoom operations, the method comprising:

receiving an indication that a zoom-in operation is performed on a page of a document;

identifying a portion of original content within the document that is a target of the zoom-in operation;

retrieving specific content that includes detailed information about the target content;

rendering a focused view that is associated with a first format, wherein the focused view includes one or more representations of the specific content organized according to the first format, as opposed to expanding the original content within a display area; and

presenting the focused view within the display area.

2. The media of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving an indication that a zoom-out operation is performed on the page of the document;

retrieving broad-scope content that provides context about the document;

rendering a generalized view that is associated with a second format, wherein the generalized view includes one or more representations of the broad-scope content organized according to the second format, as opposed to contracting the original content within a display area; and

presenting the generalized view within the display area.

3. The media of claim 1, wherein the zoom-in operation represents an open-pinch gesture carried out on a touch-screen display of a client device.

4. The media of claim 2, wherein the zoom-out operation represents an close-pinch gesture carried out on a touch-screen display of a client device.

5. The media of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises displaying visual cues to indicate a transition between the original content of the document and the specific content of the focused view.

6. The media of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises displaying visual cues to indicate a transition between the original content of the document and the broad-scope content of the general view.

7. The media of claim 2, wherein the first format and the second format are governed by a type of the document.

8. The media of claim 7, wherein the type of the document comprises at least one of a search-engine results page, an offline document, an online document, a word-processing document, or a composed message.

9. The media of claim 2, wherein configuration settings are provided to govern a type of specific content or broad-scope content that is populated within the focused view of the generalized view, respectively.

10. The media of claim 9, wherein the configuration settings are influenced by at least one of a user, a publisher of the document, or an administrator of a system that returns the specific content or the broad-scope content.

11. The media of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving an indication that a pan-forward operation is performed on the page of the document;

retrieving adjacent content that includes information related to a type of the document;

rendering a next view that is associated with a third format, wherein the next view includes one or more representations of the adjacent content organized according to the third format; and

presenting the next view within the display area.

12. The media of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving an indication that a pan-backward operation is performed on the page of the document;

retrieving adjacent content that includes information related to a type of the document;

rendering a previous view that is associated with a fourth format, wherein the previous view includes one or more representations of the adjacent content organized according to the fourth format; and

presenting the previous view within the display area.

13. The media of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving an indication that a right-twist operation is performed on the page of the document;

retrieving user-customized content that includes a type of information predefined by a user to return;

rendering a user-customized view that is associated with a fifth format, wherein the user-customized view includes one or more representations of the user-customized content organized according to the fifth format; and

presenting the user-customized view within the display area.

14. The media of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving an indication that a left-twist operation is performed on the page of the document;

retrieving publisher-customized content that includes a type of information predefined by a publisher to return;

rendering a publisher-customized view that is associated with a sixth format, wherein the publisher-customized view includes one or more representations of the publisher-customized content organized according to the sixth format; and

presenting the publisher-customized view within the display area.

15. A computerized method for transitioning a page of a document to a first view or a second view in accordance with semantic zoom-based functionality, the method comprising:

detecting a first user-initiated operation applied to a touch-screen display of a client device, wherein a portion of original content within the document is a target of the first user-initiated operation;

automatically transitioning from the page of the document to the first view, wherein the first view includes a first set of content related to the target content, wherein the first set of content is organized according to a first format that is associated with the first user-initiated operation, and wherein a type of content of the first set of content is specified by configuration settings controlled by a user of the client device or a publisher of the document;

presenting the first view to the user on the touch-screen display;

detecting a second user-initiated operation applied to a touch-screen display of a client device;

automatically transitioning from the page of the document to the second view, wherein the second view includes a second set of content related to an aggregation of the original content of the page of the document, wherein the second set of content is organized according to a second format that is associated with the second user-initiated operation, and wherein a type of content of the second set of content is specified by the configuration settings; and

presenting the second view to the user on the touch-screen display.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein first user-initiated operation represents a open-pinch gesture and the second user-initiated operation represents a close-pinch gesture.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein first user-initiated operation represents a pan-forward gesture and the second user-initiated operation represents a pan-backward gesture.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein first user-initiated operation represents a right-twist gesture and the second user-initiated operation represents a left-twist gesture.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the target content is linked to the first set of content and the second set of content via tendrils in a predefined directed graph, wherein the directed graph is constructed of a multi-dimensional lattice of semantic connections between nodes, wherein the nodes include the original content, first set of content, and second set of content.

20. A computer system for navigating between semantically-related content in response to zoom operations within a document, the computer system comprising a processing unit coupled to a computer storage medium, the computer storage medium having stored thereon a plurality of computer software components executable by the processing unit, the computer software components comprising:

a semantic engine for detecting at least one zoom operation directed to a portion of original content within the document, for transitioning from the document to a view that includes a new set of content that is linked to the original content via tendrils in a predefined directed graph, wherein the directed graph is constructed of a multi-dimensional lattice of semantic connections between nodes, wherein the nodes include the original content and the new set of content;

a ranking mechanism for filtering content retrieved from one or more vendor modules to the new set of content and for ordering the new set of content based on, in part, relevance to the original content; and

a conversion mechanism for determining a format of the view based on, in part, a type of the at least one zoom operation and for organizing the new set of content in accordance within the format.