Wave lens systems and methods for search results

• US 9,335,884 B2
• Filed: 03/25/2004
• Issued: 05/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Paek, Timothy S., Dumais, Susan T., Logan, Ronald K.
• Primary Examiner(s): WILSON, KIMBERLY LOVEL
• Application Number:
  US10/809,172
• Publication Number:
  US 20050216859A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,429 Days
• Field of Search: 707/102, 707/722
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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

The present invention relates to a system and methodology for dynamic presentation of search result information within a selected area of a display. In one aspect, a computerized interface for data presentation is provided. The system includes a lens component associated with a portion of a user interface display, wherein the lens component defines an area to display information from at least one search result. A layout component displays a detailed subset of information within the lens component based upon the search result.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented interface for data presentation embodied on a computer-readable storage device, the computer-implemented interface comprising:

a lens component associated with a portion of a user interface display, wherein the lens component defines an area to display information from at least one search result; and

a layout component that displays a detailed subset of information, comprising textual information, within the area defined by the lens component based upon the at least one search result, wherein the detailed subset of information is animated to magnify a size of the detailed subset of information and to progressively insert additional textual information associated with the at least one search result into the detailed subset of information based at least partly on an amount of time a mouse hovers over the at least one search result, wherein a rate of magnification of the detailed subset of information is determined based at least in part on a magnification factor, wherein a zoom is incrementally adjusted based at least in part on the rate of magnification until a target is reached, wherein the additional textual information to be progressively inserted into the detailed subset of information is selected from the at least one search result based in part on a query associated with the at least one search result, and wherein the additional textual information being additional as compared to the amount of information displayed for the at least one search result outside of the area defined by the lens component.

2. The computer-implemented interface of claim 1, further comprising at least one search engine and at least one local or remote database to retrieve the search result.

3. The computer-implemented interface of claim 1, wherein the layout component receives user inputs that operates, alters, or selects display criteria of the lens component and other search results.

4. The computer-implemented interface of claim 3, further comprising one or more parameters that affect the display criteria.

5. The computer-implemented interface of claim 4, wherein the one or more parameters include at least one of a lens size, a lens shape, a lens location, a magnification factor, a presentation rate, a delay, a trigger, or a minimum font size.

6. The computer-implemented interface of claim 1, further comprising at least one other lens component to display information.

7. The computer-implemented interface of claim 1, wherein the lens component is defined as a fisheye lens that is applied vertically to a display at about a focal center of the display.

8. The computer-implemented interface of claim 7, wherein the focal center includes one result item comprising a title, description, and URL of a web page.

9. The computer-implemented interface of claim 7, wherein the fisheye lens is associated with a piecewise view.

10. The computer-implemented interface of claim 1, wherein the detailed subset of information displayed within the area defined by the lens component increases in size based at least in part on the amount of time that the mouse hovers over the at least one search result until a maximum size is reached.

11. The computer-implemented interface of claim 1, further comprising a parameter that controls a size of zoom increments.

12. The computer-implemented interface of claim 11, wherein the zoom increments are controlled with a step function.

13. The computer-implemented interface of claim 11, further comprising geometric or exponential functions that allow the detailed subset of information to grow or settle at varying acceleration.

14. The computer-implemented interface of claim 11, further comprising a content insertion parameter that is adjusted according to a rate of insertion or according to a size of information chunks.

15. The computer-implemented interface of claim 1, further comprising a control panel to allow designers to adjust display parameters for the lens component and the layout component.

16. The computer-implemented interface of claim 1, further comprising a display output associated with at least one of an instant information view or a dynamic information view.

17. The computer-implemented interface of claim 16, wherein the dynamic information view is coordinated with an amount of additional textual information associated with the at least one search result to progressively insert into the detailed subset of information based at least partly on the amount of time the mouse hovers over the at least one search result following a time delay controlled by a preset delay parameter.

18. A computer-implemented system for displaying query results, comprising:

at least one hardware processor; and

one or more computer-readable storage media maintaining at least one module that is executable by the at least one hardware processor to perform acts comprising;

retrieving search results from a database, each search result of the search results comprising textual information associated with the respective search result;

processing the search results in accordance with a lens;

displaying at least one search result from within the lens and other search results outside the lens;

progressively inserting additional textual information associated with the at least one search result for display within the lens based at least partly on an amount of time a mouse hovers over the at least one search result, the additional textual information associated with the at least one search result displayed within the lens as compared to other search results displayed outside the lens, wherein the additional textual information to be progressively inserted is selected from the at least one search result based in part on a query associated with the at least one search result; and

animating the at least one search result displayed within the lens to magnify the at least one search result in size as compared to other search results outside the lens, wherein a rate of magnification for the at least one search result is determined based at least in part on a magnification factor, wherein a zoom is incrementally adjusted based at least in part on the rate of magnification until a target is reached.

19. A method for automatic search result organization, comprising:

defining a plurality of parameters for displaying search results, each search result comprised of first content associated with the respective search result, the first content comprising subsets of the first content where each subset is associated with a content type;

defining a lens region to display one or more of the search results;

displaying at least one search result of the search results within the lens region and at least one other search result outside the lens region;

progressively inserting additional content associated with the at least one search result for display within the lens region based at least partly on an amount of time a mouse hovers over the at least one search result, an onset of the progressively inserting of the additional content following a time delay controlled by a preset delay parameter, the additional content associated with the at least one search result displayed within the lens region, wherein the additional content to be progressively inserted within the lens region is selected from the at least one search result based in part on a query associated with the at least one search result; and

animating a portion of the first content and the additional content displayed within the lens region to magnify a size of the portion of the first content and the additional content as compared to second content associated with the at least one other search result displayed outside the lens region, wherein a rate of magnification associated with the lens region is determined based at least in part on a magnification factor, wherein a zoom is incrementally adjusted based at least in part on the rate of magnification until a target is reached.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the plurality of parameters include at least one of a lens size, a lens shape, a lens location, the magnification factor, a viewing rate, a delay, a trigger, or a minimum font size.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising providing a focal center for the lens region.

22. A computer-implemented graphical user interface embodied on a computer-readable storage device, the computer-implemented graphical user interface comprising:

one or more data items and results respectively associated therewith retrieved from a database, each of the one or more data items comprising text associated with a respective result;

one or more display objects created for the one or more data items;

an input component for selecting the one or more data items and parameters respectively associated with each of the one or more data items; and

a lens component to present a display object of the one or more display objects in a different format with respect to a collection of the one or more data items, the different format comprising animation of the display object to magnify the display object in size and modify the display object to progressively insert additional text associated with a data item corresponding to the display object based at least partly on an amount of time a mouse hovers over the display object, wherein the additional text to be progressively inserted is retrieved from a result to be included in the display object based in part on a query associated with the result, and wherein a rate of magnification of the display object is determined based at least in part on a magnification factor, wherein a zoom is incrementally adjusted based at least in part on the rate of magnification until a target is reached.

23. The computer-implemented graphical user interface of claim 22, further comprising controls for interacting with a search engine, a database, the one or more display objects, or the lens component.

24. The computer-implemented graphical user interface of claim 22, wherein the one or more display objects are associated with at least one of text insertion, query-relevant text insertion, thumbnails of a web page, information about a size of a result, a download speed, or a recency of a page.