Method and apparatus for graphically representing information stored in electronic media
First Claim
1. A computer implemented method of displaying information stored in a tree data structure stored in a computer storage medium, comprising:
- (a) providing a tree data structure comprising nodes, said data structure having a relationship whereby any one node may contain one or more other nodes, each said node having a numerical quantity associated with a node, whereby said numerical quantity associated with said node is proportional to the amount of space occupied on said computer storage medium,(b) providing a parent node in said data structure,(c) providing a child node in said data structure, said child node being contained in said parent node,(d) displaying said parent node on an output medium as a parent shape having a height, width and area, the area of said parent shape being proportional to the numerical quantity associated with said parent node,(e) displaying said child node on an output medium as a child shape having a height, width and area, the area of said child shape being proportional to the numerical quantity associated with said child node, and(f) said height of said child shape being less than said height of said parent shape and said width of said child shape being less than said width of said parent shape.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus is provided for displaying nested rectangles which graphically illustrate the directories and files located in a storage medium such a computer hard disk drive or the nodes of a tree data structure. The sizes of the rectangles are proportional to the size of the directory or file they represent, and the rectangles are nested in a recursive manner in accordance with the branch structure of the directories and files on the storage media. Preferably, the dimensions of the rectangles are chosen to maximize the number of rectangles, especially those capable of displaying the names of the directories and files. Yet further, the invention preferably assigns colors to the rectangles based upon certain criteria and suppresses directories or files from being shown if their rectangles will be too small to be accurately perceived.
235 Citations
26 Claims
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1. A computer implemented method of displaying information stored in a tree data structure stored in a computer storage medium, comprising:
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(a) providing a tree data structure comprising nodes, said data structure having a relationship whereby any one node may contain one or more other nodes, each said node having a numerical quantity associated with a node, whereby said numerical quantity associated with said node is proportional to the amount of space occupied on said computer storage medium, (b) providing a parent node in said data structure, (c) providing a child node in said data structure, said child node being contained in said parent node, (d) displaying said parent node on an output medium as a parent shape having a height, width and area, the area of said parent shape being proportional to the numerical quantity associated with said parent node, (e) displaying said child node on an output medium as a child shape having a height, width and area, the area of said child shape being proportional to the numerical quantity associated with said child node, and (f) said height of said child shape being less than said height of said parent shape and said width of said child shape being less than said width of said parent shape. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A computer implemented method of displaying information stored in a tree data structure stored in a computer storage medium, comprising:
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(a) providing a tree data structure comprising nodes, said data structure having a relationship whereby any one node may contain one or more other nodes, each said node having a numerical quantity associated with a node, whereby said numerical quantity associated with said node is proportional to the amount of space occupied on said computer storage medium, (b) providing a parent node in said data structure, (c) providing a child node in said data structure, said child node being contained in said parent node, (d) displaying said parent node on an output medium as a parent shape having a height, width and area, the area of said parent shape being proportional to the numerical quantity associated with said parent node, (e) assigning a portion of said parent shape, at least a portion of said assigned portion for displaying a shape associated with said child node, (f) determining whether the width of said assigned portion is greater than a first predetermined amount and less than a second predetermined amount, (g) if said width of said assigned portion is less than a first predetermined amount or greater than a second predetermined amount, then displaying said child node on an output medium using a binary display method, and (h) said binary display method comprising displaying said child node as a child shape within said assigned portion, said child shape having a height, width and area, the area of said child shape being proportional to the numerical quantity associated with said child node and said height of said child shape being less than said height of said parent shape and said width of said child shape being less than said width of said parent shape. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25)
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23. The method of claim S wherein substantially all of said nodes of said structure are displayed as shapes by recursively repeating said steps of said method as if each node containing other nodes is said parent node.
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26. A computer implemented method of displaying parent directories or files and child directories or files contained on a storage medium, whereby said child directories are contained within said parent directories, said method comprising:
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(a) providing a computer screen having a resolution for displaying information stored in a tree data structure; (b) displaying said parent directories in said tree data structure as rectangles, the area of each rectangle being proportional to the amount of space on the storage medium occupied by the associated parent directory; (c) displaying said child directories in said tree data structure as rectangles, the area of each rectangle being proportional to the amount of space on the storage medium occupied by the associated child directory, and displaying the rectangles of said child directories within said rectangles of the parent directories which contain the child directories, and (d) calculating the height and width of said rectangles so as to maximize the number of rectangles which can be displayed on said computer screen.
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Specification