Methods for defining queries, generating query results and displaying same

• US 20060271884A1
• Filed: 05/25/2006
• Published: 11/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WeiserMazars LLP (Mazars SA)
• Original Assignee: Cogniscape, LLC
• Inventors: Hurst, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,020,110 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/854
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3323 using document space presentation or visualization, e.g. category, hierarchy or range presentation and selection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/34 Browsing; Visualisation therefor

Abstract

Documents are grouped into a plurality of subjects. For documents associated with each subject, a document hierarchy is established that includes a plurality of hierarchical levels. A three-dimensional landscape defined by x, y and z orthogonal axes is displayed on a screen, and a plurality of document stacks are arranged in the landscape. Each document stack in the landscape corresponds to a subject, and has a plurality of layers arranged perpendicular to the length of the stack. Each layer in each document stack corresponds to one of the hierarchical levels of the hierarchy established for the subject corresponding to the stack. Images representing documents assigned to each level of the hierarchy are displayed in the layer of the stack corresponding to such level. A user navigates among the document images displayed in the landscape using a cursor.

Claims

1. A method for displaying and navigating among images of documents on a two-dimensional screen, comprising:

(a) grouping the documents into a plurality of subjects;

(b) for documents associated with each subject, establishing a document hierarchy that includes a plurality of hierarchical levels and assigning each of the documents associated with the subject to one of the hierarchical levels;

(c) displaying a three-dimensional landscape defined by x, y and z orthogonal axes on the screen;

(d) arranging a plurality of document stacks in the three-dimensional landscape;

wherein each document stack corresponds to one of the subjects;

wherein each document stack has a plurality of layers arranged perpendicular to a length of the document stack, and each of the layers is parallel to a plane defined by the x and z axes; and

(e) wherein, for each document stack, each layer in the document stack corresponds to one of the hierarchical levels of the document hierarchy established for the subject corresponding to the document stack;

(f) for each document stack;

displaying an image representing each document in the group of documents associated with the subject corresponding to the stack;

wherein the displaying is performed in accordance with the hierarchy established for the subject such that one or more images representing documents assigned to each level of the hierarchy are displayed in the layer of the stack corresponding to such level; and

(g) navigating among the images representing the documents displayed in the three-dimensional landscape by moving a cursor within the two-dimensional screen.

2. A method for displaying and navigating among information on a two-dimensional screen, comprising:

(a) displaying a plurality of documents in a three-dimensional landscape defined by x, y and z orthogonal axes on the screen;

(b) arranging a plurality of document planes in the three-dimensional landscape, wherein each of the document planes is parallel to a plane defined by the y and z axes;

(c) separating the documents into a plurality of document groups as a function of a first parameter and associating each of the document planes with one of the document groups, wherein each of the document planes corresponds to a respective value of the first parameter and is disposed at a position along the x-axis in accordance with said respective value of the first parameter;

(d) for each document group, displaying an image of each document in the group in the document plane associated with the document group;

wherein a common positioning rule is applied to each document group such that the images of the documents in the document plane associated with the document group are uniformly positioned across all planes associated with the document groups.

3. A method of defining a query and generating a resulting tree comprising:

(a) graphically selecting nodes and edges and graphically placing representations of the selected nodes and edges in a window in a graphical user interface in order to create a vertical stack of nodes and edges respectively representing object types and link types;

(b) defining the query based on the stack; and

(c) generating a resulting tree by applying the query to an underlying data store, wherein a top node of the stack defines one or more top-level elements in the resulting tree, a node below the top node of the stack defines child elements of the one or more top-level elements of the resulting tree, and an edge of the stack connecting the top node and the node below the top node defines the relationship between the one or more top-level elements and their child elements in the resulting tree.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising including hierarchical information from recursive data links in the query by inserting a graphical edge connecting a node with itself into the window.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the query is defined to return multiple linked resulting trees, and the stack comprises two or more stacks with an edge between at least one node in each of the two or more stacks.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising filtering output from the query using one or more filters placed at a query, tree, object or link level and represented within the graphical user interface as one or more icons.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising filtering output from the query using one or more filters placed at a query, tree, object or link level and represented within the graphical user interface as one or more icons.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising filtering output from the query using one or more filters placed at a query, tree, object or link level and represented within the graphical user interface as one or more icons.

9. The method of claim 3, further comprising defining sub queries for identifying subsets of data within the query by adding filter icons and inter-tree links to the graphical user interface that are color coded with a specific color corresponding to the sub query.

10. The method of claim 4, further comprising defining sub queries for identifying subsets of data within the query by adding filter icons and inter-tree links to the graphical user interface that are color coded with a specific color corresponding to the sub query.

11. The method of claim 5, further comprising defining sub queries for identifying subsets of data within the query by adding filter icons and inter-tree links to the graphical user interface that are color coded with a specific color corresponding to the sub query.