Portable computer device

• US 8,035,617 B2
• Filed: 09/12/2003
• Issued: 10/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Miller-Smith, Richard M., Penna, David E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shalwala; Bipin
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHOWDHURY, AFROZA Y
• Application Number:
  US10/528,950
• Publication Number:
  US 20060103622A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,951 Days
• Field of Search: 345/156, 345/204, 345/530, 345/169
• US Class Current: 345/169
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3811 Point data, e.g. Point of Interest [POI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance

Abstract

A portable computer device has data acceptance logic (24,40) that determines whether input data items have time and location information. If not, data items are stored together with time and location information taken from clock (30) and location determining circuitry (28), here a Global Positioning Service (GPS) system. A screen (6) is arranged to display data items in a time mode or a space mode. In the time mode, those data items with time information in a time interval are displayed on a time line. In a space mode, data items with time information in a display area are displayed, for example on a map of the display area. The display can be toggled between the time and space modes.

Claims

1. A portable computer device comprising:

a data input (26, 38);

a control input (16);

data acceptance logic (24,40) arranged to accept data on the data input (26, 38), to determine whether time and location information is present, to add time and/or location information to data items not having time and/or location information respectively and to store data items in memory (22) together with respective time and location information; and

a display arrangement (6,24,40) arranged to cause the display of data items, including data items stored in the memory (22), in one of a plurality of modes, the modes including a time mode and a space mode, the display arrangement being arranged;

to switch (54) between the time and space modes in response to a corresponding input on the control input (16);

to display in the time mode a representation (90) of a time interval together with representations (92) of those data items that have respective time information in the time interval, the representations of data items being displayed at locations corresponding to the respective time information; and

to display in the space mode a representation of a display area (94) together with representations (92) of those data items that have respective location information within the display area, the representations of data items being displayed at locations corresponding to the respective location information;

a zoom control (14), wherein the computer device accepts input from the zoom control (14) and adjusts the zoom setting of the display to adjust the displayed time interval in the time mode and the display area in the space mode in accordance with the input on the zoom control (14) and wherein in the time mode adjusting the zoom setting enables a broad view the representations (92) to details of a single representation (92).

2. A computer device according to claim 1 wherein the data items (92) are displayed together with information (96) relating to the data items, the amount of information displayed for each data item varying with the zoom setting set by the zoom control.

3. A portable computer device according to any preceding claim further comprising:

a location determining arrangement (28) for obtaining location information; and

a clock unit (32) for determining time information, wherein the display arrangement includes a screen (6) for displaying information; and

the data input includes data exchange circuitry (26, 38) including a wireless interface for bi-directional communication.

4. A portable computer device according to claim 1 further comprising a control (18) for selecting data items wherein on switching between time and location modes the selected data item remains displayed.

5. A portable computer device according claim 1 wherein the display of data items includes displaying icons (92) corresponding to the data items.

6. A computer device according to claim 1 wherein the data acceptance logic associates a tag (45) of predetermined format with each data item, the tag including the location, the time and the type of the corresponding data item.

7. A computer device according to claim 1 further comprising a scroll control (12) for scrolling the time mode and space mode displays.

8. A computer device according to claim 1 further comprising a camera (30) to record images.

9. A method of operation of a computer device, the method including:

accepting (70) input data;

testing (72) whether input data includes time information and determining (74) the time of any input data not including time information;

testing (76) whether input data includes location information and determining (76) the computer device location as the location of any input data not including location information;

recording (80) input data as data items including both time information and location information;

accepting an input to select a time or a space mode;

in the time mode, displaying on a display screen representations (92) of data items in a time interval on a time line according to the time information stored in the memory corresponding to the data items;

in the space mode, displaying on the display screen representations (92) of data items on a displayed area according to the location information corresponding to the data items; and

zooming the display to change the display area in the space mode and to change the time interval in the time mode) and wherein in the time mode adjusting the zoom setting enables a broad view the representations (92) to details of a single representation (92).

10. A method according to claim 9 further including recording an image corresponding to a new event, storing the image as a data item (44) together with the time and location information and displaying the image when displaying the data item.

11. A computer program product (40) arranged to cause a computer to carry out the steps of a method according to claim 9.

12. A computer program product (40) according to claim 11 recorded on a data carrier (22).