Information elements locating system and method

• US 8,010,508 B2
• Filed: 07/07/2007
• Issued: 08/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Maya-Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Audet, Mathieu
• Primary Examiner(s): AL HASHEMI, SANA A
• Application Number:
  US11/774,591
• Publication Number:
  US 20070271508A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,515 Days
• Field of Search: 707/688, 707/694, 707/721, 707/726, 707/802, 707/825
• US Class Current: 707/688
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs

Abstract

A method for distinguishing information elements on a display is disclosed, the method comprising associating a characterization attribute to a group of information elements selected from a plurality of information, associating at least one visual distinctive feature with the characterization attribute, and displaying, on the display, at least one information element from the group of information elements associated with the characterization attribute on an information element vector along a specific sequence, the at least one information element being displayed with the associated at least one visual distinctive feature, the at least one visual distinctive feature influencing the visual appearance of the at least one information element.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium tangibly storing computer-readable code thereon providing, when executed by a computer, a method for displaying on a display a plurality of documents having a plurality of attributes associated therewith, the method comprising:

providing a group of documents having a first attribute in common;

displaying on the display the group of documents on a first axis along a timeline;

displaying a time mark indicating a present moment along the timeline, the time mark being adapted to separate a past portion and a future portion along the timeline;

associating a visual distinctive feature with a second attribute;

associating the second attribute with documents on the axis changing from the future portion to the past portion of the timeline; and

displaying the documents associated with the second attribute with the visual distinctive feature, the visual distinctive feature discriminating the visual appearance of the documents associated with the second attribute from the documents not associated with second attribute.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein axis is a substantially longitudinal arrangement of documents.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the second attribute is a past-due attribute and wherein the visual distinctive feature is indicative that the documents associated with the second attribute are past due.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, further comprising providing a list of past due documents and wherein the documents associated with the second attribute are added on the list of past-due documents.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the visual distinctive feature is an offset in respect to the axis.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the visual distinctive feature is progressively applied to the documents newly associated with the second attribute.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the visual distinctive feature is alternatively displayed with the documents associated with the second attribute.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the visual distinctive feature is a frame applied to the documents.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein at least one of the documents displayed with the visual distinctive feature is a text document.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the associated visual distinctive feature is a color applied to the document.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the associated visual distinctive feature is a change in size applied to the document.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising adding an additional document on the future portion of axis when a document on the axis passes from the future portion to the past portion.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the additional document on the axis is graphically associated with the document that changed from the future portion to the past portion.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, further comprising defining a time delay and wherein the additional document is located on the axis in a position representing the time delay.