Information display apparatus and methods
First Claim
1. Apparatus implemented in a system having processing means and a display controlled by the processing means for displaying information about a plurality of entities comprising lines of one or more texts, the entities having associated attribute values and the apparatus comprising:
- items in the display includingcontext representation means (205) for visually representing a context of the entities;
for each entity, individual entity representation means (207) contained in the context representation means for visually representing the entity, a plurality of the entity representation means being simultaneously present in the display and each entity representation means having a size such that at least five thousand of the entity representation means may be simultaneously displayed in a display with a 19 inch diagonal measurement;
a plurality of individual value representation means distinct from the context representation means, (303) the individual value representation means being simultaneously present in the display and each one of the value representation means visually representing an attribute value; and
pointing means (103) for selecting a displayed item in response to a user input to the system; and
responding means in the processing means responsive to a first kind of selection of a value representation means by the pointing means by altering the appearance in the display of any entity representation means itself whose corresponding entity is associated with the value represented by the selected value representation means to a first appearance, the first appearance indicating selection of the entity representation means.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Apparatus for displaying information about a very large number of entities. The apparatus includes very small entity representations which represent the entities. The entity representations are contained in columns which represent contexts for the entities. In one embodiment of the apparatus, the entities are lines of text and the contexts are files containing the lines. Also included is a selector with a set of colored fields corresponding to values of attributes of the entities. When either an entity representation or a selector field is activated by means of a pointing device, the selector field and all of the entity representations for entities having the attribute value corresponding to the selector field are turned on and appear in the same color. The pointing device may also be used to specify an entity representation for detailed viewing. In response to this operation, a code viewer opens which displays detailed information about the entity corresponding to the specified entity representation. The apparatus may display values from different attribute types and may turn on an entity representation in response to a set of attribute values having different types. There are further animated display modes and techniques for remapping colors onto the selector fields. Applications of the apparatus include testing and maintenance of software and selection of programs in interactive TV systems.
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Citations
56 Claims
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1. Apparatus implemented in a system having processing means and a display controlled by the processing means for displaying information about a plurality of entities comprising lines of one or more texts, the entities having associated attribute values and the apparatus comprising:
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items in the display including context representation means (205) for visually representing a context of the entities; for each entity, individual entity representation means (207) contained in the context representation means for visually representing the entity, a plurality of the entity representation means being simultaneously present in the display and each entity representation means having a size such that at least five thousand of the entity representation means may be simultaneously displayed in a display with a 19 inch diagonal measurement; a plurality of individual value representation means distinct from the context representation means, (303) the individual value representation means being simultaneously present in the display and each one of the value representation means visually representing an attribute value; and pointing means (103) for selecting a displayed item in response to a user input to the system; and responding means in the processing means responsive to a first kind of selection of a value representation means by the pointing means by altering the appearance in the display of any entity representation means itself whose corresponding entity is associated with the value represented by the selected value representation means to a first appearance, the first appearance indicating selection of the entity representation means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52)
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33. Apparatus implemented in a system including processing means and a display controlled by the processing means for displaying information about a plurality of entities comprising lines of one or more texts, the entities having associated attribute values and the apparatus having items in a display, the apparatus comprising:
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items in the display including context representation means (205) for visually representing a context of the entities; for each individual entity, individual entity representation means (207) contained in the context representation means for visually representing the entity, a plurality of the entity representation means being simultaneously present in the display; selector means (219) distinct from the context representation means which contains a plurality of individual value representation means, (303) each one of the value representation means visually representing an attribute value, the value representation means being simultaneously present in the display, and the value representation means being substantially contiguous to each other in the selector means and being ordered according to an order of the attribute values; and pointing means (103) for selecting a displayed item;
in response to a user input to the system; andresponding means in the processing means responsive to a selection of a value representation means by the pointing means by altering the appearance in the display of any entity representation means itself whose corresponding entity is associated with the value represented by the selected value representation means to an appearance indicating selection. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 38, 39)
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37. Apparatus implemented in a system including processing means and a display controlled by the processing means for displaying information about a plurality of entities comprising lines of one or more texts, the entities having associated attribute values and the apparatus comprising:
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items in the display including context representation means (205) for visually representing a context of the entities; for each individual entity, individual entity representation means (207) contained in the context representation means for visually representing the entity, a plurality of the entity representation means being simultaneously present in the display; a plurality of individual value representation means which are simultaneously present in the display and distinguished from the context representation means, (303) each one of the value representation means visually representing an attribute value; and pointing means (103) for selecting a displayed item; and responding means in the processing means responsive to a selection of a value representation means by the pointing means by altering the appearance in the display of the selected value representation means and of entity representation means whose corresponding entities are associated with the value represented by the selected value representation means to a first appearance, the first appearance indicating selection and the value and responding to a selection of an entity representation means by altering the appearance of the selected entity representation means itself to the first appearance and altering the appearance of the value representation means itself to a second appearance, the second appearance indicating selection. - View Dependent Claims (40)
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53. Information display apparatus implemented in a system including processing means and a display controlled by the processing means for making a graphical display on the display of information about a plurality of entities comprising lines of one or more texts, the information display apparatus comprising:
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a plurality of distinct individual entity representations which are simultaneously present on the display, each entity representation corresponding to one of the entities; value relating means which is an area on the display, the value relating means relating values belonging to a set of values of the information to a plurality of visual characteristics, the visual characteristics being simultaneously present in the value relating means and each visual characteristic being displayed in a distinct predetermined portion of the value relating means; selecting means in the display for interactively selecting either an entity representation or a visual characteristic; and responding means in the processing means responsive to the selecting means for causing any entity representation for an entity having a value corresponding to a selected visual characteristic to be displayed with the visual characteristic in response to selection of the visual characteristic in the value relating means and causing the visual characteristic in the value relating means to be displayed in response to a selection of any entity representation for an entity having the value represented by the visual characteristic.
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54. Apparatus for displaying information about a sequence of lines of text, some of which are indented from a margin, and for which modifications are indicated in Modification Requests, MRs, comprising:
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a) a programmable digital computer and an associated visual display; b) pointing means (103) effective to allow a user to select components contained within the display; c) software means, running on the computer, effective to i) show, on the display, about 5,000 graphical lines (207), each of which corresponds to one of said lines of text, such that A) the graphical lines are stacked in columns (205), in an order corresponding to said sequence of the lines of text, and B) amount of indentation of each graphical line within a column indicates amount of indentation of a corresponding line of text; ii) show, on the display, a plurality of MRs, of different shades of color; and iii) cause predetermined graphical lines to assume the color of an MR, when that MR is selected by the pointing device. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56)
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Specification