Non-homogeneous objects magnification and reduction

• US 9,189,129 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2011
• Issued: 11/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 9224-5489 Quebec Inc., Maya-Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: 9224-5489 Quebec Inc.
• Inventors: Cassistat, Francois, Audet, Mathieu
• Primary Examiner(s): Chu, David H
• Application Number:
  US13/244,589
• Publication Number:
  US 20120249581A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,514 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

Is provided herein a method of non-homogeneously magnifying objects comprising providing an information element adapted to be displayed on a display and surrounded by a margin thereof; displaying the information element and its margin on a display; defining a standardized object adapted to respectively include therein the information element and at least a portion of the margin; magnifying the standardized object; defining a size of the magnified information element by removing an unmagnified size of the at least a portion of the margin to the size of the magnified standardized object; and displaying the magnified information element with its surrounding margin.

Claims

1. A method of magnifying an array of information elements having a plurality of sizes on a display, the method comprising:

displaying a first plurality of information elements on the display with a first original size thereof, at least some of the plurality of information elements being surrounded by a margin thereof, the first plurality of information elements being juxtaposed in a substantially rectilinear arrangement along a first axis thereof, the information elements being disposed on the first axis on a basis of a common attribute,

displaying a second plurality of information elements on the display with a second original size thereof, at least some of the plurality of information elements being surrounded by a margin thereof, the second plurality of information elements being juxtaposed in a substantially rectilinear arrangement along a second axis thereof, the information elements being disposed on the second axis on a basis of a common attribute;

modifying the first original size of the first plurality of information elements and the second original size of the second plurality of information elements,

modification of the first plurality of information elements and the second original size of the second plurality of information elements comprising

assembling at least a portion of the margin with respective information elements to characterize standardized objects;

applying a ratio to modify sizes of the standardized objects; and

extracting the margin from the modified standardized object to determine a first modified size of the first plurality of information elements and a second modified size of the second plurality of information elements,

wherein the first plurality of information elements and the second plurality of information elements are adapted to remain at a substantially constant relative rectilinear arrangement thereof before modifying the first original size of the first plurality of information elements and the second original size of the second plurality of information elements and after modifying the first original size of the first plurality of information elements and the second original size of the second plurality of information elements,

whereby the relative rectilinear arrangement of the first plurality of information elements along the first axis thereof and the rectilinear arrangement of the second plurality of information elements along the second axis thereof remain substantially the same to prevent confusion of the user in regard to the respective axial locations of the displayed information elements.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first axis of information elements and the second axis of information elements are disposed parallel to one another.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first axis of information elements includes a timeline with time units and time separations thereof, and the second axis of information elements includes a timeline with time units and time separations thereof, the first axis and the second axis share time separations and wherein the time separations remain substantially at same respective locations thereof when collectively modifying the original size of the first plurality of information elements and the original size of the second plurality of information elements.

4. A method for collectively resizing objects having different sizes on a display area of a display, the method comprising:

displaying on the display area a first plurality of objects having a common attribute thereof, with intervening margins thereof, in a substantially rectilinear axial arrangement thereof, the first plurality of objects being of a first original size thereof;

displaying on the display area a second plurality of objects having a common attribute thereof, with intervening margins thereof, in a substantially rectilinear axial arrangement thereof, the second plurality of objects being of a second original size thereof, the first original size being different than the second original size and the first plurality of objects being concurrently displayed with the second plurality of objects at relative axial positions thereof; and

directly resizing the first plurality of objects and the second plurality of objects, the resizing of the objects being independent of a size of the display area,

wherein a thickness of the margins between two adjacent objects remains substantially constant when the first plurality of objects and the second plurality of objects are resized,

wherein the relative axial positions between the axial arrangement of the first plurality of objects and the axial arrangement of the second plurality of objects remains substantially constant when resizing the first plurality of objects and the second plurality of objects,

whereby the axial arrangement of the first plurality of objects and the second plurality of objects, before the modification of the original sizes, is substantially similar to the axial arrangement of the first plurality of objects and the second plurality of objects after the modification of the first original size and the second original size to prevent confusion of the user in regard to the respective axial locations of the displayed objects.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein at least some of the objects are user-selectable.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the first plurality of objects and the second plurality of objects are parallelly displayed.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first plurality of objects and the second plurality of objects are juxtaposed to one another.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the first plurality of objects is arranged along a first axis equidistantly distributing the objects thereof and the second plurality of objects is arranged along a second axis equidistantly distributing the objects thereof.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein at least some of the objects are documents.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein first plurality of objects and the second plurality of objects are disposed along a timeline.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein at least a portion of the margins is being associated with its respective object in a unified object for resizing thereof.

12. The method of claim 4, wherein the margin being disassociated from its respective object after the resizing for determining the modified size of the objects.

13. The method of claim 4, wherein the resizing of the objects is made in respect with an expansion anchor adapted to identify a position about which the objects remain fixed on the display area when resizing the objects and from where expansion and contraction of the objects on the display area are made.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the expansion anchor is one of a vertical expansion anchor and an horizontal expansion anchor.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a computer system, cause the computer system to perform operations for collectively resizing objects on a display area of a display, the operations comprising:

displaying on the display area a first plurality of objects having a common attribute thereof, with intervening margins thereof, in a substantially rectilinear axial arrangement thereof, the first plurality of objects being of a first original size thereof;

displaying on the display area a second plurality of objects having a common attribute thereof, with intervening margins thereof, in a substantially rectilinear axial arrangement thereof, the second plurality of objects being of a second original size thereof, the first original size being different than the second original size and the first plurality of objects being concurrently displayed with the second plurality of objects at relative axial positions thereof; and

directly resizing the first plurality of objects and the second plurality of objects, the resizing of the objects being independent of a size of the display area,

wherein a thickness of the margins between two adjacent objects remains substantially constant when the first plurality of objects and the second plurality of objects are resized,

wherein the relative axial positions between the axial arrangement of the first plurality of objects and the axial arrangement of the second plurality of objects remains substantially constant when resizing the first plurality of objects and the second plurality of objects,

whereby the axial arrangement of the first plurality of objects and the second plurality of objects, before the modification of the original sizes, is substantially similar to the axial arrangement of the first plurality of objects and the second plurality of objects after the modification of the first original size and the second original size to prevent confusion of the user in regard to the respective axial locations of the displayed objects.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein at least some of the objects are user-selectable.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the first plurality of objects and the second plurality of objects are juxtaposed to one another.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the first plurality of objects is arranged along a first axis equidistantly distributing the objects thereof and the second plurality of objects is arranged along a second axis equidistantly distributing the objects thereof.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein at least some of the objects are documents.