Navigating heirarchically organized information
First Claim
1. A method comprisingidentifying a position in a space associated with a hierarchy of nodes, each of the nodes being uniquely identifiable within the hierarchy by a node level value identifying the node'"'"'s level in the hierarchy and a node-in-level value identifying the node'"'"'s location uniquely among nodes in that level, the space associated with the hierarchy of nodes having at least two dimensions, the position in the space being identified by a depth value comprising the node level value and an offset from that node level value and a position-in-level value comprising the node-in-level value and an offset from the node-in-level value.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Hierarchies are navigated easily through a user interface that is continuous in its presentation of node information and may be implemented using a small display space.
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Citations
47 Claims
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1. A method comprising
identifying a position in a space associated with a hierarchy of nodes, each of the nodes being uniquely identifiable within the hierarchy by a node level value identifying the node'"'"'s level in the hierarchy and a node-in-level value identifying the node'"'"'s location uniquely among nodes in that level, the space associated with the hierarchy of nodes having at least two dimensions, the position in the space being identified by a depth value comprising the node level value and an offset from that node level value and a position-in-level value comprising the node-in-level value and an offset from the node-in-level value.
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6. A method comprising
dividing an area on a display into subareas, each position in the area belonging to one of the subareas; -
each of the subareas associated with a node in the hierarchy of nodes;
the entire area of each of the subareas representing the associated node at a given time, and receiving an indication of an action to be taken, the indication being received at any arbitrary position within the area of the display at the given time, the indication being unambiguously associated with the node associated with the subarea that contains the arbitrary position. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8)
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11. A method comprising
displaying a representation of a portion of a hierarchy of nodes to a user, enabling a user to vary the portion of the hierarchy that is displayed by performing a first type of user-interface action not directed within the displayed representation of the portion of the hierarchy, the change in the portion of the hierarchy that is displayed being accompanied by a change in the scale at which at least some of the nodes of the portion are displayed, allowing, by a second type of user-interface action directed within the displayed representation of the portion of the hierarchy, a selection of any node in the portion of the hierarchy of nodes of which a representation is being displayed, and reporting each selection to an application to invoke node-specific behavior by the application, the node-specific behavior being other than affecting the representation of the hierarchy, and the application being other than the representation and navigation of the hierarchy.
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47. A method comprising
displaying a representation of a portion of a hierarchy of nodes to a user, enabling a user to vary the portion of the hierarchy displayed and the scale and degree of detail at which any node is represented by a first type of user-interface action performed outside of the displayed representation of the portion of the hierarchy, allowing, by a second type of user-interface action within the displayed representation of the portion of the hierarchy, the selection of any node in the portion of the hierarchy of nodes of which a representation is being displayed, and reporting each selection to an application to invoke node-specific behavior in the application, the node-specific behavior being other than affecting the representation of the hierarchy, and the application being other than the representation and navigation of the hierarchy.
Specification