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Method and system for providing an invisible attractor in a predetermined sector, which attracts a subset of entities depending on an entity type

  • US 7,720,857 B2
  • Filed: 08/27/2004
  • Issued: 05/18/2010
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2003
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method of providing a visualization graph on a computer with memory, a processor, and a display device, the method comprising:

  • storing data in the memory corresponding to a plurality of entities having a particular type, wherein a semantic net includes the entities and wherein the entities are linked to each other by a plurality of relations;

    providing, by executing a process in the processor, a visualization graph on the display device in response to a query with respect to an entity selected from the plurality of entities, wherein the visualization graph includes;

    a first of the entities, representing results of the query, displayed because it is a focus entity defined by the user or the querya second of the entities, representing the results of the query, displayed because it is directly related to the focus entity, wherein a third of the entities, representing the results of the query, is not displayed because it is indirectly related to the focus entity;

    a fourth of the entities, representing the results of the query, that is indirectly related to the focus entity, wherein context information is used to determine that the fourth entity be displayed;

    a plurality of sectors representing the results of the query, the plurality of sectors being subdivisions of a screen area with boundaries;

    a plurality of sub-sectors being subdivisions inside the boundaries of the plurality of sectors, the subsectors also having boundaries, wherein a size of a predetermined one of the plurality of sub-sectors depends on a number of the entities allocated to the predetermined sub-sector,wherein a predetermined one of the plurality of sectors has a size that depends on a number of the entities allocated to the predetermined sector and the number of the entities allocated to the predetermined sub-sector;

    displaying the entities inside the boundaries of the predetermined sector and the boundaries of the predetermined sub-sector of the visualization graph depending on an entity type and entity sub-type of the allocated entities, respectively; and

    providing an invisible attractor in the predetermined sector, which attracts a subset of the entities to the predetermined sector depending on the entity type of the subset of entities, wherein the invisible attractor remains invisible during user interaction with the visualization graph.

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