Visualization-based user interface system for exploratory search and media discovery
First Claim
1. A user interface system for exploratory search and media discovery programmed for organizing media items in a data space and making these media items navigable by users, the user interface system comprisinga processing unit and a display unit,the display unitdisplaying a specific rigid 2-dimensional geometrical grid with a focal field in a center of the grid, the focal field being surrounded by at least one closed rectangular ring or by a plurality of closed rectangular rings getting repeatedly smaller towards the outside,where each ring is subdivided regularly into rectangular fields,resulting in the geometrical grid that subdivides any rectangular display in a regular, symmetric and centric manner as a recursive tiling,where this specific grid is used to visualize relations between the media items placed in the focal field and related media items distributed in the fields surrounding the focal field, following a focus-plus-context principle, where the media item in the focal field is the focus and the surrounding items are the context,from which users can select any item to become the new focus,the processing unitbeing programmed to filter and to map media items from n-dimensional data spaces to the specific grid,as a focus-plus-context visualization that serves as a user interface for enabling a semantically coherent navigation flow,where the user selects any media item of the user'"'"'s interest from the context, and by that defines it as the new focus, which triggers queries to retrieve related media items, which are mapped again to the grid building an updated context, from where the user again selects a media item triggering new queries and consequently updated display of focus plus context,the processing unit being programmed to perform a dimension reduction of the n-dimensional data structure for mapping media items to the fields of the specific grid so that the proximity to the focus visualizes a degree of relevance of each context item to the item in the focus, and the arrangement along the grid'"'"'s directions is an order by similarities.
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Abstract
A user interface system for exploratory search and media discovery includes a display unit with a specific geometrical grid for the visualization of multidimensional interrelations among media items and includes a processing unit programmed to distribute and map media items to the grid coordinates. A method includes user interaction with the user interface system for exploratory browsing, with the users interacting with the visualization grid based on an extension of the focus-plus-context principle for a fluent browsing process. A further method includes generating the specific grid on the display unit.
28 Citations
34 Claims
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1. A user interface system for exploratory search and media discovery programmed for organizing media items in a data space and making these media items navigable by users, the user interface system comprising
a processing unit and a display unit, the display unit displaying a specific rigid 2-dimensional geometrical grid with a focal field in a center of the grid, the focal field being surrounded by at least one closed rectangular ring or by a plurality of closed rectangular rings getting repeatedly smaller towards the outside, where each ring is subdivided regularly into rectangular fields, resulting in the geometrical grid that subdivides any rectangular display in a regular, symmetric and centric manner as a recursive tiling, where this specific grid is used to visualize relations between the media items placed in the focal field and related media items distributed in the fields surrounding the focal field, following a focus-plus-context principle, where the media item in the focal field is the focus and the surrounding items are the context, from which users can select any item to become the new focus, the processing unit being programmed to filter and to map media items from n-dimensional data spaces to the specific grid, as a focus-plus-context visualization that serves as a user interface for enabling a semantically coherent navigation flow, where the user selects any media item of the user'"'"'s interest from the context, and by that defines it as the new focus, which triggers queries to retrieve related media items, which are mapped again to the grid building an updated context, from where the user again selects a media item triggering new queries and consequently updated display of focus plus context, the processing unit being programmed to perform a dimension reduction of the n-dimensional data structure for mapping media items to the fields of the specific grid so that the proximity to the focus visualizes a degree of relevance of each context item to the item in the focus, and the arrangement along the grid'"'"'s directions is an order by similarities.
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9. A method for user interaction executed by a processing unit of a user interface system for exploratory browsing, where users are enabled to perform a fluent discovery process through a visualization-based user interface, comprising
a focus-plus-context visualization that serves as a user interface based on a specific two-dimensional grid displayed by a display unit with a focal field in the center, surrounded by at least one closed rectangular ring or by a plurality of closed rectangular rings getting repeatedly smaller towards the outside, where each ring is subdivided regularly into rectangular fields, resulting in a geometrical grid that subdivides any rectangular display in a regular, symmetric and centric manner as a recursive tiling, where the media item in the central field is the focus and the surrounding items are the context, an algorithm that is mapping media items to the fields of the specific grid according to their relevance in relation to the media item in the center representing the focus and ordering the media items along the directions of the grid according to the set of parameters associated with each direction, in a way that as a whole it visualizes an order comprising relevance and direction in a single view, wherein direction and relevance can be based on semantic, temporal or other data, a program filtering media items and mapping them from n-dimensional data spaces to the specific grid, a user interface feature enabling users to select any field from the context, and by that defining it as the new focus, a program filtering media items from n-dimensional data spaces based on the media item in the center representing the focus and the center media items'"'"' associated metadata, the method for user interaction which enables users to engage in a fluent navigation process comprising the following steps: -
display of media items arranged on the specific grid as focus-plus-context visualization, selection of any media item from the context of the focus-plus-context visualization by the user, update of visualization displaying the selected item in the center representing the focus, query formulation based on the media item in the center representing the focus and the center media item'"'"'s associated metadata, filtering media items from n-dimensional data spaces based on the media item in the center representing the focus and its associated metadata, mapping media items from n-dimensional data spaces to the specific grid according to the relation of each item to the center item onto rings weighted by relevance and along directions by similarity, and another selection of any media item from the new context of the focus-plus-context visualization by the user. - View Dependent Claims (11, 14, 15, 16, 22, 23, 26, 27, 32, 34)
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10. A proprietary method executed by a processing unit, the method comprising steps of:
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generating via the processing unit a specific grid geometry on a display unit, where the specific grid geometry is a 2-dimensional, symmetrical, rigid, recursive tiling with a focal field in the center, surrounded by a plurality of closed rectangular rings getting repeatedly smaller toward the outside, subdividing each ring regularly into rectangular fields displayed on the display unit, and distributing, via the processing unit, media items on the specific grid geometry on the display unit around a center media item according to the media items'"'"' multi-dimensional interrelations in data space, wherein the length of the sides of each rectangular field in each ring is half of the length of the sides of the adjacent rectangular field in the neighboring inner ring, and wherein the specific grid geometry serves as a mapping architecture for visualizing on the display unit the output of the processing unit programmed for organizing the media items in the data space, for filtering these media items, and for mapping these media items from n-dimensional data space to the specific grid displayed on the display unit. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 24, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33)
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Specification