System and method for iconic software environment management

• US 8,527,882 B2
• Filed: 03/17/2008
• Issued: 09/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Gregory J. Swartz, Natalie Swartz
• Original Assignee: Gregory J. Swartz, Natalie Swartz
• Inventors: Swartz, Gregory J.
• Primary Examiner(s): HAILU, TADESSE
• Application Number:
  US12/077,106
• Publication Number:
  US 20080201307A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,996 Days
• Field of Search: 715/738, 715/200, 715/760, 715/764, 707/706
• US Class Current: 715/738
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/34 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34

Abstract

A system and method for iconic software environment management. The system and method provide storing, navigating and accessing files within an operating system on a stand alone device or on a networked device with internal files and external files (e.g., from web-sites, etc.) through the use of graphical thumbnail icons representing a graphical display of a substantial portion of information obtained from within an electronic document.

Claims

1. A method of viewing contents of a computer file on a network device, comprising:

sending a search engine query via an application on a network device with one or more processors with a display screen with a touch sensitive interface via communications network to one or more external electronic search engine servers each with one or more processors, wherein the search query includes one or more search keywords;

obtaining on the application electronic information including search engine query results, wherein the search engine query results include a plurality electronic links to a plurality of electronic files on one or more other server network devices each with one or more processors on the communications network;

accessing one or more electronic files via one or more electronic links included in the search engine query results;

storing contents of the one or more electronic files in a memory accessible by the application on the network device;

collecting a selected portion of electronic information from the accessed one or more electronic files;

creating graphical thumbnail icons for the accessed one or more electronic files, the graphical thumbnail icons substantially depicting at least a portion of the collected information from the accessed one or more electronic files;

displaying the graphical thumbnail icons on a graphical user interface with one or more graphical windows via the application, wherein selecting the graphical thumbnail icons allows contents of the electronic files to be determined from the memory without re-accessing the electronic files via the communications networks;

receiving a first selection input on the touch sensitive interface from a static placement or a dynamic hover of an input device at a first position location on a selected graphical thumbnail icon displayed in a graphical window on the graphical user interface on the display screen on the network device;

displaying contents of an electronic file associated with the selected graphical thumbnail icon in a full size format in the graphical window, wherein the graphical window still includes the selected graphical thumbnail icon;

receiving a second selection input on the touch sensitive interface from a second static placement or a second dynamic hover of the input device at a second position location on the selected graphical thumbnail icon displayed in the graphical window on the graphical user interface on the display screen on the network device;

displaying contents of the electronic file associated with the selected graphical thumbnail icon in a reduced size format in the graphical window, wherein the graphical window still includes the selected graphical thumbnail icon, wherein the reduced size format is a viewable format of less than 100% resolution; and

switching between displaying the full size format and the reduced sized format in the graphical window upon receiving one or more third selection inputs on the touch sensitive interface at a third position location on the selected graphical thumbnail icon displayed in the graphical window on the graphical user interface on the display screen on the network device, wherein the graphical window still includes the selected graphical thumbnail icon.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more electronic files include a mark-up language file, a graphics file, an image file, or a multi-media file from a web-site.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more electronic files includes an electronic file including results from an electronic search engine for one or more selected keywords sent to the electronic search engine.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the communications network includes Internet an intranet, or a public switched telephone network.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the created graphical thumbnail icons include electronic file information comprising current active local filename, filename path, file object identifier in memory, application, application path, application object identifier in memory and Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the input device includes a human finger, mouse or stylus.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of displaying the created graphical thumbnail icons includes displaying a generic graphical thumbnail icon that displays an associated non-generic created graphical thumbnail icon when selected by an input device.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

receiving a selection input for a selected generic graphical thumbnail icon on the touch sensitive interface;

displaying a selected created graphical thumbnail icon associated with the selected generic graphical thumbnail icon; and

displaying the contents of an electronic file associated with the selected created graphical icon in the graphical window on the graphical user interface based on the selection input, wherein the contents of the electronic file are viewed without re-accessing the electronic file via the communications network.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the displaying the contents step includes also displaying the contents of the electronic file in a new graphical window on the graphical user interface.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a designated sequence of selection inputs on the touch sensitive interface for a selected created graphical thumbnail icon; and

displaying contents of an electronic file associated with the selected created graphical thumbnail icon in the graphical window on the graphical user interface based on the designated sequence of selection inputs, wherein the contents of the electronic file are viewed via re-accessing the electronic file via the communications network.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the network device includes a mobile phone, a personal game playing device or a personal audio-video device including a display screen with a touch sensitive surface.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of electronic links include a plurality of Universal Resource Locators (URL)s.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the switching step includes switching a display the contents of an accessed electronic file between a reduced sized format and a full size format based on a sequence of received selection inputs from an input device on the touch sensitive interface, wherein the input device includes a human finger.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein a plurality of instructions for causing one or more processors to execute the steps of:

sending a search engine query via an application on a network device with one or more processors with a display screen with a touch sensitive interface via communications network to one or more external electronic search engine servers each with one or more processors, wherein the search query includes one or more search keywords;

obtaining on the application electronic information including search engine query results, wherein the search engine query results include a plurality electronic links to a plurality of electronic files on one or more other server network devices each with one or more processors on the communications network;

accessing one or more electronic files via one or more electronic links included in the search engine query results;

storing contents of the one or more electronic files in a memory accessible by the application on the network device;

collecting a selected portion of electronic information from the accessed one or more electronic files;

creating graphical thumbnail icons for the accessed one or more electronic files, the graphical thumbnail icons substantially depicting at least a portion of the collected information from the accessed one or more electronic files;

displaying the graphical thumbnail icons on a graphical user interface with one or more graphical windows via the application, wherein selecting the graphical thumbnail icons allows contents of the electronic files to be determined from the memory without re-accessing the electronic files via the communications network;

receiving a first selection input on the touch sensitive interface from a static placement or a dynamic hover of an input device at a first position location on a selected graphical thumbnail icon displayed in a graphical window on the graphical user interface on the display screen on the network device;

displaying contents of an electronic file associated with the selected graphical thumbnail icon in a full size format in the graphical window, wherein the graphical window still includes the selected graphical thumbnail icon;

receiving a second selection input on the touch sensitive interface from a second static placement or a second dynamic hover of the input device at a second position location on the selected graphical thumbnail icon displayed in the graphical window on the graphical user interface on the display screen on the network device;

displaying contents of the electronic file associated with the selected graphical thumbnail icon in a reduced size format in the graphical window, wherein the graphical window still includes the selected graphical thumbnail icon, wherein the reduced size format is a viewable format of less than 100% resolution; and

switching between displaying the full size format and the reduced sized format in the graphical window upon receiving one or more third selection inputs on the touch sensitive interface at a third position location on the selected graphical thumbnail icon displayed in the graphical window on the graphical user interface on the display screen on the network device, wherein the graphical window still includes the selected graphical thumbnail icon.

15. A system for displaying contents of an electronic file, comprising in combination:

means for sending a search engine query via an application on a network device with one or more processors with a display screen with a touch sensitive interface via communications network to one or more external electronic search engine servers each with one or more processors, wherein the search query includes one or more search keywords;

means for obtaining on the application electronic information including search engine query results, wherein the search engine query results include a plurality electronic links to a plurality of electronic files on one or more other server network devices each with one or more processors on the communications network;

means for accessing an electronic file on an application a network device with one or more processors via a communications network;

means collecting a selected portion of electronic information from the electronic file;

means for creating a graphical thumbnail icon for the accessed electronic file, the graphical thumbnail icon substantially depicting at least a portion of the collected information from the accessed electronic file;

means for displaying the graphical thumbnail icon on a graphical user interface with one or more graphical windows, wherein selecting the graphical thumbnail icon allows contents of the electronic file to be determined without re-accessing the electronic file via the communications network, wherein the network device includes a mobile phone, a personal game playing device or a personal audio-video device including a display screen with a touch sensitive surface;

means for sending a search engine query to one or more electronic search engine servers each with one or more processors via a communications network, wherein the search query includes one or more keywords;

means for obtaining electronic information including search engine query results, wherein the search engine query results include a plurality electronic links to a plurality of electronic files on one or more servers on the communications network;

means for storing contents of the one or more electronic files in a memory accessible by the application on the network device;

means for accessing one or more electronic files via an electronic link included in the search engine query results;

means displaying a generic graphical thumbnail icon that displays a created graphical thumbnail icons when selected by a selection input;

means for receiving a first selection input on the touch sensitive interface from a static placement or a dynamic hover of an input device at a first position location on a selected graphical thumbnail icon displayed in a graphical window on the graphical user interface on the display screen on the network device;

means for displaying contents of an electronic file associated with the selected graphical thumbnail icon in a full size format in the graphical window, wherein the graphical window still includes the selected graphical thumbnail icon;

means for receiving a second selection input on the touch sensitive interface from a second static placement or a second dynamic hover of the input device at a second position location on the selected graphical thumbnail icon displayed in the graphical window on the graphical user interface on the display screen on the network device;

means for displaying contents of the electronic file associated with the selected graphical thumbnail icon in a reduced size format in the graphical window, wherein the graphical window still includes the selected graphical thumbnail icon, wherein the reduced size format is a viewable format of less than 100% resolution; and

means for switching between displaying the full size format and the reduced sized format in the graphical window upon receiving one or more third selection inputs on the touch sensitive interface at a third position location on the selected graphical thumbnail icon displayed in the graphical window on the graphical user interface on the display screen on the network device, wherein the graphical window still includes the selected graphical thumbnail icon.