Computer hierarchical display of multiple data characteristics

• US 7,346,858 B1
• Filed: 11/15/2000
• Issued: 03/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Visual Action Software, Inc
• Original Assignee: The Hive Group
• Inventors: Maruyama, Susan J., Hoffman, Donald J., Berg, Peter R., Burton, Jeffrey B., Bradley, Andrew J., Cooley, James H., Winchester, Kenneth J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cabeca; John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pillai; Namitha
• Application Number:
  US09/713,843
• Time in Patent Office: 2,680 Days
• Field of Search: 705/27, 345/968, 345/962, 345/853, 707/6, 715/708, 715/738, 715/744, 715/747, 715/810, 715/853, 715/854, 715/528
• US Class Current: 715/853
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A data display comprises a window that shows a tree map display having menu information surrounding a field array of differently sized and colored or shaded areas that represent product offering possibilities that conform with user criteria entered through the surrounding menu windows. A Web site that uses the display technique may receive user criteria and retrieve a portion of collected data and display it to the user, so that the retrieved data describes a data subset that is responsive to the user criteria. The retrieved Web pages may be viewed to facilitate review of product offering information, and to facilitate purchase decisions that are transmitted from the Web site visitors.

Claims

1. A method of processing user criteria to retrieve a portion of data and display it to the user, the method comprising the steps of:

issuing a request for an application program, over a network communication session, from a client computer to a server computer, the application program being a server applet;

returning a datafile containing the application program from the server computer to the client computer;

initiating execution of the application program on the client computer;

communicating data criteria, specified by the user, from the application program to the server computer;

on the server computer, constructing one or more data objects that represent the data subset specified by the data criteria, and communicating the objects to the application program; and

on the client computer via the application program, displaying the data subset in a display defined by a two-dimensional field array of information, wherein the field array of the display is divided into a plurality of two-dimensional bounded field areas, one or more of which has a display area that is indicative of a grouping criterion of the data subset, wherein the grouping criterion is user-selectable, and wherein the area of one or more bounded field areas is further divided into one or more subfield areas, one or more of which has an area that is indicative of a second data criterion of data subset, wherein the second data criterion is user-selectable;

wherein the one or more subfield areas are displayed with a color value via an algorithm comprising the steps of;

computing first color values for the one or more subfield areas, wherein the first color values are based on values of a dimension for associated data elements of the one or more subfield areas;

computing, for one or more of the first color values, second color values as logarithms of the first color values;

calculating mean and standard deviation of the second color values;

setting an upper and a lower limit for a set of final color values for the one or more subfield areas;

computing final color values by normalizing the second color values to numbers between zero and one, wherein zero corresponds to the lower limit and one corresponds to the upper limit; and

assigning color values to the one or more subfield areas based on the final color values and displaying the assigned color values.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

displaying a subfield detail window adjacent to or on top of one of the subfield areas in response to moving a display cursor over a boundary of the bounded subfield area to show data relating to the bounded subfield area;

removing the subfield detail window when the display cursor has been moved outside the boundaries of the bounded subfield area; and

removing the subfield detail window when an escape key is pressed.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

providing a highlight box by which one or more subfield areas meeting one or more user-specified criteria are highlighted with one or more symbols associated with the criteria.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of:

providing a menu such that the grouping criterion is user-changeable, such that one or more subfield areas are grouped with one or more other subfield areas according to the changed grouping criterion.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein server applet runs in a virtual machine in a browser, wherein a reference tag to the server applet is embedded in a web page containing HTML code, such that the HTML code identifies the server applet to the browser and provides one or more parameters necessary for the browser to receive and launch the server applet.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the virtual machine implements a browser-compatible language.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the client computer is a hand-held computer.

8. A method of displaying a tree map, comprising the steps of:

computing first color values for one or more subfield areas of a tree map, wherein the first color values are based on values of a dimension for associated data elements of the subfield areas;

computing, for one or more of the first color values, second color values as logarithms of the first color values;

calculating mean and standard deviation of the second color values;

setting an upper and a lower limit for a set of final color values for the one or more subfield areas;

computing the final color values by normalizing the second color values to numbers between zero and one, wherein zero corresponds to the lower limit and one corresponds to the upper limit;

assigning color values to the one or more subfield areas based on the final color values; and

displaying the assigned color values.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the steps of:

displaying a highlight box by which one or more subfield areas meeting one or more user-specified criteria are highlighted with one or more symbols associated with the criteria;

displaying a menu item by which the factors which govern the bounded field areas are changed, such that the subfield areas are regrouped according to user-specified criteria;

displaying a menu item by which the criteria used for displaying data elements are automatically widened and narrowed; and

providing an aural attribute associated with one or more subfield areas for indicating, via sound, a dimension of the data element for the subfield areas.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the upper limit is about two standard deviations above the mean, and the lower limit is about two standard deviations below the mean.