Methods, apparatus and data structures for providing a user interface which facilitates decision making

• US 20060174211A1
• Filed: 03/31/2006
• Published: 08/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/1999
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Robbins, Daniel C., Robertson, George G., van Dantzich, Maarten R., Thiel, David D., Hoellerer, Tobias Hans
• Application Number:
  US11/395,805
• Publication Number:
  US 20060174211A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/782
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/106 using electronic means

Abstract

A user interface for facilitating a decision making process, such as planning a trip. A unified view of various types of information related to an event may be provided. The unified view may be presented in a simulated three-dimensional environment having different types of information depicted on different windows. Different types of information related to a common event may be visually linked. A window showing a articular type of information may be brought into a focus view for closer inspection by a user. Alternative decisions may be depicted to permit vagueness or uncertainty, particularly at early iterations in the decision making process.

Claims

1. A user interface that facilitates decision making, comprising:

a reception component that receives one or more expectational event; and

a rendering component that displays the one or more expectational event on a first facet of a polyhedral display object.

2. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising one or more information sources that include disparate information regarding the one or more expectational event.

3. The user interface of claim 2, the one or more information sources employed to gather, based at least in part on the one or more expectational event, a first datum of information and a second datum of information.

4. The user interface of claim 3, the first datum of information projected by the rendering component on a second facet of the polyhedral display object

5. The user interface of claim 4, the rendering component projects the second datum of information on a third facet of the polyhedral display object.

6. The user interface of claim 5, further including a mapping component that generates at least one non-occlusional colored ray to associate the first datum of information, the second datum of information and the one or more expectational event.

7. The user interface of claim 6, the rendering component projects the at least one non-occlusional colored ray that associates the first datum, the second datum and the one or more expectational event into three-dimensional space to connect the first, second and third facets of the polyhedral display object.

8. The user interface of claim 5, the first facet, the second facet and the third facet of the polyhedral display object focusable based at least in part on a user action.

9. The user interface of claim 8, the user action comprises holding a mouse button while moving a mouse in a cardinal direction.

10. The user interface of claim 3, the first datum of information and the second datum or information dynamically adjustable based on changes in the one or more expectational event.

11. The user interface of claim 10, the first datum of information dynamically changeable based on changes in the second datum of information.

12. The user interface of claim 10, the second datum of information dynamically changeable based at least in part on changes in the first datum of information.

13. The user interface of claim 2, the one or more expectational result employed to form a query to search the one or more information sources.

14. A method that facilitates decision making, comprising:

receiving an inclinational event; and

displaying the inclination event on a first plane of a three-dimensional display object rendered on a visual display.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising utilizing a plurality of data sources to retrieve a first item of information and a second item of information relating to the inclination event.

16. The method of claim 15, further including projecting the first item of information and the second item of information onto a second plane of the three-dimensional display object, and a third plane of the three-dimensional display object respectively.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising associating a non-occluding colored ray with the first item of information, the second item of information, and the inclinational event.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising projecting the non-occluding colored ray into one or more three-dimensional space within the three-dimensional display object to connect the first plane, the second plane and third plane of the three-dimensional object.

19. The method of claim 15, the inclinational event employed to generate a query to search the plurality of data sources.

20. A user interface that facilitates decision making, comprising:

means for receiving an aspirational event;

means for rendering a multi-dimensional object;

means for obtaining one or more information associated with the aspirational event;

means for projecting the aspirational event and the one or more information associated with the aspirational event onto a plurality of planes that comprise the multi-dimensional object; and

means for associating a non-occluding visible ray with the aspirational event and the one or more information projected onto the plurality of planes that comprises the multi-dimensional object.