System and method providing centricity user environment

• US 6,078,326 A
• Filed: 02/22/1999
• Issued: 06/20/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Acorn, LLC, Nygmatech, LLC
• Original Assignee: ROKU Technologies (Engenia Software, Inc.)
• Inventors: Craine, David B., Kilmer, Richard A. C., Dankman, Scott J.
• Primary Examiner(s): SAX, STEVEN PAUL
• Application Number:
  US09/255,411
• Time in Patent Office: 484 Days
• Field of Search: 345/335, 345/352, 345/353, 345/346, 345/333-334, 345/340, 345/341-347, 345/339, 345/327, 345/356, 345/357, 395/200.3
• US Class Current: 715/834
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0219 Special purpose keyboards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0489 using dedicated keyboard keys or combinations thereof

Abstract

A processing architecture includes an object instantiation and interaction engine, an CUE interface, and remote processes to create, access, and process objects in a distributed manner. The CUE interface uses an interface wheel divided into portions denoted who, what, when, where, why, how, and now. Selection of a particular portion provides the user with control related to that portion. The interface is adaptable for use with a wide variety of machines, including computers, televisions, telephones, security systems, and automobiles. The wheel is implemented as a display on a video monitor or as a physical disk. Each portion of the wheel is assigned a color that serves as a mnemonic for that portion. A hierarchical network of engines provides distributed storage and access to data in conjunction with the CUE interface.

Claims

1. A method for organizing information in a computer network, the method comprising:

arranging a plurality of information processing engines hierarchically into said computer network; and

for each of said processing engines, categorizing information corresponding to that engine and to ones of said processing engines hierarchically subordinate to that engine, said categorizing including choosing portions of information as belonging to one of a plurality of categories, the categories including a "who" category pertaining to personas, a "when" category pertaining to events, a "where" category pertaining to locations, a "why" category pertaining to goals, a "what" category pertaining to unstructured objects, and a "how" category pertaining to resources.

2. A method as in claim 1, wherein the categories further include a "now" category pertaining to current objects.

3. A computer-implemented method of accessing and manipulating items of information by a user, comprising:

categorizing the items of information in a plurality of classes, the classes including a "who" class pertaining to persona objects, a "when" class pertaining to event objects, a "where" class pertaining to location objects, a "why" class pertaining to goal objects, a "what" class pertaining to unstructured information objects, and a "how" class pertaining to resource objects;

generating links to form associations among pairs of the items;

selecting one of the items as a centricity element; and

selectively making available to the user a subset of said links and associated ones of said items of information in response to correspondence between each of said links and said centricity element.

4. A computer-implemented method as in claim 3, wherein the classes further include a "now" class pertaining to current objects.