Interface system for information mapping

• US 6,583,794 B1
• Filed: 07/01/1999
• Issued: 06/24/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Dow Jones and Company (News Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Smart Money
• Inventors: Wattenberg, Martin
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Cao (Kevin)
• Application Number:
  US09/346,465
• Time in Patent Office: 1,454 Days
• Field of Search: 345/326, 345/333, 345/335, 345/356, 345/357, 345/339, 345/346, 345/440, 345/437, 345/708, 345/705, 345/744, 345/765, 345/839, 345/810, 705/35, 705/36, 705/37, 707/100, 707/102, 707/104
• US Class Current: 715/708
• 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: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A computer interface system for providing a visual display of a financial market comprising a plurality of display sectors, each display sector representing a financial sector, and the size of each display sector corresponding to a specified characteristic of the financial sector. Furthermore, a plurality of company regions are disposed within each display sector, each company region representing a company, and each of the company regions associated with a financial sector represented by the display sector. The size of each company region corresponds to a specified characteristic of said company region. In one embodiment the specified characteristic may be market capitalization. The display sectors may be further divided into a plurality of industry regions, wherein each industry region corresponds to an industry within the financial sector represented by the corresponding display sector. Each company region may be represented by a color corresponding to a characteristic of the corresponding company, such as market performance. Also, a user may manipulate the visual display by zooming in and out of display sectors and industry regions. Additional commands and buttons may also be provided to further provide means for manipulation the visual display and for providing information to a user. It is understood that the computer interface system may be modified to provide an alternative visual display other than one for a financial market.

Claims

1. In a computer interface system for providing a visual display of a financial market, said visual display comprising:

a plurality of display sectors, each display sector representing a financial sector, wherein size of each display sector corresponds to a specified characteristic of said financial sector;

a plurality of company regions disposed within each display sector, each company region representing a company, each of said company regions associated with a financial sector represented by said display sector, wherein the size of each company region corresponds to a specified characteristic of said company region

wherein each company region is represented by a color corresponding to a characteristic of a corresponding company represented by each one of said company regions; and

means for measuring said company characteristic within a specifiable period of time selected by a user of said computer interface system.

2. A visual display in accordance with claim 1 wherein each of said display sectors is divided into a plurality of industry regions, wherein each industry region corresponds to a financial sector represented by each of said display sectors, and each of said industry regions contains a plurality of corresponding one of said company regions associated with each of said industry regions.

3. A visual display in accordance with claim 2 wherein the size of each of said company regions corresponds to market capitalization of a corresponding company represented by each of said company regions.

4. A visual display in accordance with claim 3 wherein the size of each display sector corresponds to total market capitalization of a corresponding financial sector represented by each of said display sectors.

5. A visual display in accordance with claim 4 wherein additional information about each of said companies represented by a company region is displayed in response to movement of a cursor over said company region.

6. A visual display in accordance with claim 5 wherein said additional information comprises the name of said company represented by a company region and performance of said company within a specifiable period of time as selected by a user of said computer interface system.

7. A visual display in accordance with claim 5 wherein further information about each of said companies represented by a company region is displayed in response to a command provided by a user of said computer interface system.

8. A visual display in accordance with claim 7 wherein said information comprises an option to display on said display screen only a display sector wherein said company region belongs and an option to display on said display screen only an industry region wherein said company region belongs.

9. A visual display in accordance with claim 1 wherein said color is a function of market performance of a company represented by each one of said company regions.

10. A visual display in accordance with claim 9 wherein said market performance is the price per share of a company represented by each one of said company regions.

11. A visual display in accordance with claim 9 wherein intensity of said color depends on value of said performance of a company represented by each one of said company regions.

12. A computer interface system for providing a visual display of a financial market on a display screen, said visual display comprising:

a plurality of display sectors each of said display sectors representing a corresponding financial sector, each of said display sectors further having a size corresponding to total market capitalization of said corresponding financial sector, and wherein total size of said display sectors corresponds to total size of said display screen;

a plurality of company regions within each of said display sectors, each of said company regions representing a company that belongs to a financial sector represented by each of said display sectors, wherein said display screen is divided by said display sectors such that as many of largest display sectors as can be fitted in one area of said display screen are located in said area having a size less than a specifiable percentage of total size of said display screen; and

said company regions within each display sector are further positioned on said display screen such that layouts providing a smaller total difference of values representing company characteristics between neighboring company regions are selected over layouts providing a larger total difference of values between neighboring company regions.

13. A visual display in accordance with claim 12 wherein said specifiable percentage is approximately 50%.

14. A visual display in accordance with claim 13 wherein financial sectors having a size larger than said 50% of total size of said display screen occupy half of said display screen.

15. A visual display in accordance with claim 12 wherein each display sector is divided by either one of a vertical line and a horizontal line such that rectangles remaining after each division have lowest possible aspect ratio.

16. A visual display in accordance with claim 12 wherein said company regions within each display sector are further positioned on said display screen such that layouts providing a smaller total sum of distances between neighboring company regions are selected over layouts providing a larger total sum of distances between said neighboring company regions.

17. The visual display from the computer interface of claim 16, wherein said colors for each of said regions are green, red and black and said visual indication is a positive, negative and neutral change in stock price.

18. The visual display from the computer interface system of claim 12, further comprising a plurality of industry regions, each of said industry regions corresponding to a financial industry such that said regions are further associated with one of said display industries within said display sectors.

19. The visual display from the computer interface of claim 12, further comprising a menu interface and a button bar for providing a means to manipulate and display information.

20. The visual display from the computer interface of claim 12, further comprising a pop up display so that relevant data for individual regions may be displayed, said pop up display appearing when one of said regions is selected.

21. The visual display from the computer interface of claim 20, further comprising an expanded display so that additional data and user options may be provided.

22. The visual display from the computer interface of claim 12, wherein said sizing and displaying said regions comprises sizing said regions so as to reduce the frequency of rectangles having high aspect ratios.

23. The visual display from the computer interface of claim 12, further comprising a zoom view of each of said display sectors.

24. The visual display from the computer interface of claim 12 further comprising a zoom view of each of said industires.

25. The visual display from the computer interface of claim 12, wherein said difference between neighboring company regions corresponds to performance of stock price.

26. The visual display from the computer interface of claim 12, wherein said sized regions are re-sized at predetermined intervals corresponding to a change in financial data of said regions.

27. The visual display from the computer interface of claim 12, wherein said regions and said display sectors are customizable via user input.

28. The visual display from the computer interface of claim 12, wherein said company regions within each display sector are further positioned on said display screen according to a mathematical function employing variables comprising metrics of companies represented by said company regions.

29. The visual display from the computer interface of claim 28, wherein said mathematical function is employed to minimize the sum of the distances between adjacent companies.

30. The visual display from the computer interface of claim 28, wherein said metric is a region value assigned to each region of a layout and said mathematical function is employed to derive and sum a plurality of region variances for every region in a layout so as to derive a layout variance number, wherein the layout having the lowest layout variance number is selected.

31. A method of generating regions for display on a display screen of a computer interface system comprising the steps of:

creating a plurality of said regions, one for each of a plurality of objects;

associating a weight to each of said regions based on relevant characteristic data from said objects;

sizing and displaying said regions on said display screen according to an initial layout such that as many of the largest regions as can be fitted in one area of said display screen are located in said area having a size less than a specifiable percentage of total size of said display screen and

positioning said regions according to an optimization method, such that layouts providing a smaller total difference of value representing said characteristics between neighboring regions are selected over layouts providing a larger total difference of value between neighboring regions.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein said objects are companies.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein said objects are web pages.

34. The method of claim 31 , further comprising the step of assigning each of said regions to one of a plurality of display sectors.

35. The method of claim 31, wherein said step of sizing and displaying said regions comprises the step of dividing each display sector by either one of a vertical line and a horizontal line such that rectangles remaining after each division have lowest possible aspect ratio.

36. The method of claim 31, further comprising the step of providing a button bar in order to manipulate and display information to one or more users.

37. In a computer interface system for providing a visual display of an Internet software application on a display screen, said visual display comprising:

a plurality of display sectors, each of said display sectors having a size corresponding to a specified characteristic of said display sectors;

a plurality of regions within each of said display sectors, each of said regions representing an object that belongs to its corresponding display sector, wherein said display screen is divided by said display sectors such that as many of largest display sectors as can be fitted in one area of said display screen are located in said area having a size less than a specifiable percentage of total size of said display screen and

means for measuring said characteristic within a specifiable period of time selected by a user of said computer interface system.

38. The computer interface system of claim 37, wherein said object is one of consumer products, web pages, companies, books, employees and patients.

39. The computer interface system of claim 37, wherein said display sectors represent a corresponding one of product categories, financial sectors, book categories and patient conditions.

40. In a computer interface for providing a visual display of a web site maintenance software application on a display screen, said visual display comprising:

plurality of display sectors each of said display sectors representing a corresponding web site, each of said display sectors further having a size corresponding to total hit rate of said corresponding web site, and wherein total size of said display sectors corresponds to total size of said display screen;

a plurality of web page regions within each of said display sectors, each of said web page regions representing a web page that belongs to a web site represented by each of said display sectors, wherein said display screen is divided by said display sectors such that as many of largest display sectors as can be fitted in one area of said display screen are located in said area having a size less than a specifiable percentage of total size of said display screen; and

means for measuring said hit rate within a specifiable period of time selected by a user of said computer interface system.