Predictive scrolling

• US 8,271,898 B1
• Filed: 06/04/2009
• Issued: 09/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: MeLLmo Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Mattos, Camilo, Kraut, Joel, Cheng, Patrick, Zuluaga, Jaime, Schaefer, Alex C., Becerra, Santiago
• Primary Examiner(s): Bautista, Xiomar L
• Application Number:
  US12/478,749
• Time in Patent Office: 1,202 Days
• Field of Search: 715/764, 715/765, 715/783, 715/784, 715/786, 715/790, 715/793, 715/810, 715/833, 715/835, 715/838, 345/473, 707/705, 707/805
• US Class Current: 715/784
• 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: G06F 2203/04802 3D-info-object: information is displayed on the internal or external surface of a three dimensional manipulable object, e.g. on the faces of a cube that can be rotated by the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04855 Interaction with scrollbars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/977 Dynamic icon, e.g. animated or live action

Abstract

A system and a method are disclosed for effectively displaying database records on a device having a display area that is small compared to the underlying data being represented. A simulated catalogue is displayed with cards associated with database records. Detailed information is presented for a record on a card obscuring information related to other records. A user is allowed to swipe on the catalogue causing simulated movement of the cards thereby displaying information associated with a database record previously obscured. The catalogue is moved with an initial velocity determined by the speed of swiping and decelerated based on a drag factor until it comes to a stop and displays information for the record reached. The ability to determine the final record displayed when the catalogue stops allows pre-fetching of the data associated with the record.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for graphically displaying data on a display screen with limited display area, the method comprising:

displaying a plurality of cards from a first perspective, each card associated with a database record, at least some of the plurality of cards obscured by a displayed front card;

displaying a scrollbar representing the plurality of cards, the scrollbar including a first thumb at a location representing the front card;

receiving a user input having a direction and a speed;

responsive to the received user input;

determining according to the direction and the speed of the received user input a second card to display;

displaying a second thumb at a location on the scrollbar representing the second card;

animating the display to scroll the display of cards based on the received direction;

animating the display to move the displayed location of the first thumb to the location of the second thumb; and

displaying the plurality of cards from a second perspective, the second perspective including a display of the second card and at least one other card obscured by the displayed second card.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein animating the display to scroll the display of cards comprises displaying the cards scrolling with a speed initialized to a first speed value determined based on the speed of the user input.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein animating the display to scroll the display of cards further comprises displaying the cards scrolling with a second speed that is less than the first speed and greater than a predetermined minimum threshold.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the second speed value is determined by multiplying the first speed value by a predetermined drag value.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining a number of cards to be displayed scrolling before the scrolling stops and determining a second database record corresponding to the second card.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

preloading the second database record before the scrolling of the cards stops.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

rendering a card image for displaying the second card before the scrolling of the cards stops.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

storing the card image in a cache for retrieval prior to subsequently displaying the second card.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input includes a swiping gesture across the display screen.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the cards are displayed on a catalogue and animating the display to scroll the display of cards comprises moving the cards of the catalogue.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the cards are displayed on a rolodex and animating the display to scroll the display of cards comprises moving the rolodex.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the cards are displayed on faces of a cube and animating the display to scroll the display of cards comprises rotating the cube.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein an audio feedback is provided as an obscured card is displayed as no longer obscured.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the cards represent pages of report data.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein an obscured card displays information identifying the obscured card.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a marker card displaying information indicative of number of cards between a card displayed as not obscured and the marker card.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the cards are displayed scrolling in the direction of swiping.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

rendering an image for each of a plurality of database records neighboring the final record during the scrolling; and

storing the rendered images in a cache.

19. A computer-implemented method for graphically displaying database records on a display screen with limited display area, the method comprising:

displaying a plurality of database records from a first perspective, a first subset of the plurality at least partially obscured by a first record; and

responsive to a user input, animating the display to scroll through the database records;

determining a final record from the plurality of records to display at a conclusion of the scrolling before the scrolling comes to the conclusion;

rendering an image comprising a graphical representation of a set of data corresponding to the final record before the scrolling comes to the conclusion; and

responsive to the conclusion of the scrolling, receiving the rendered image and displaying the rendered image such that the rendered image obscures at least partially a final subset of the plurality.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the images for each of the plurality of database records neighboring the final record are rendered in the order of their distance from the determined record.

20. A system for graphically displaying database records on a display screen with limited display area, the system comprising:

a computer processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium storing computer program modules configured to execute on the computer processor, the computer program modules comprising;

an input/output driver module configured to;

display a plurality of database records from a first perspective, a first subset of the plurality at least partially obscured by a first record;

responsive to user input, animate the display to scroll through the database records;

displaying the database records from a final perspective at a conclusion of the scrolling, the final perspective displaying a second subset of the plurality at least partially obscured by a final record;

display a scrollbar representing the plurality of database records, wherein a first thumb represents a front card displayed to the user and a second thumb represents a final card corresponding to the final record; and

display the first thumb animated to move towards the second thumb as the database records are displayed scrolling towards the final card.

21. A computer program product having a computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable code for graphically displaying database records on a display screen with limited display area, the code comprising:

an input/output driver module configured to;

display a plurality of database records from a first perspective, a first subset of the plurality at least partially obscured by a first record;

responsive to user input, animate the display to scroll through the database records;

displaying the database records from a final perspective at a conclusion of the scrolling, the final perspective displaying a second subset of the plurality at least partially obscured by a final record;

display a scrollbar representing the plurality of database records, wherein a first thumb represents a front card displayed to the user and a second thumb represents a final card corresponding to the final record; and

display the first thumb animated to move towards the second thumb as the database records are displayed scrolling towards the final card.