System and method for interacting with data using visual surrogates

• US 20070233814A1
• Filed: 03/31/2006
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kapur, Shyam
• Granted Patent: US 7,747,686 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

The present invention relates to systems and methods for facilitating the interaction with data using interactive data structures. The method of the present invention comprises generating one or more objects associated with one or more items of content. The one or more objects are combined to form an interactive data structure. The content associated with the one or more objects and the interactive data structure are delivered to a client device. One or more modifications may be made to the one or more objects comprising the interactive data structure. The one or more modifications made to the one or more objects comprising the interactive data structure may be propagated to the content associated with the one or more objects.

Claims

1. A method for generating an interactive data structure using one or more items of content, the method comprising:

generating one or more objects associated with one or more items of content;

combining the one or more objects to form an interactive data structure; and

delivering the content and interactive data structure to a client device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein generating comprises generating one or more objects associated with one or more items of content contained within a document.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein generating comprises generating one or more objects associated with one or more items of content contained within a web page.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein generating comprises generating one or more objects associated with one or more items of content maintained in one or more applications.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein combining comprises combining the one or more objects according to a structure identified by the content associated with the one or more objects.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein delivering comprises delivering the content and interactive data structure in response to a user request.

7. The method of claim 1 comprising:

receiving one or more modifications made to the one or more objects comprising the one or more interactive data structures; and

propagating the one or more modifications to the content associated with the one or more modified objects to update the one or more interactive data structures.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein receiving comprises receiving a modification made to the positioning of the one or more objects comprising the one or more interactive data structures.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein receiving comprises receiving a modification made to the one or more characters displayed in the one or more objects comprising the one or more interactive data structures.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein receiving comprises receiving a notification to deactivate the display of one or more objects comprising the one or more interactive data structures.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein receiving comprises receiving a notification to activate the display of one or more objects comprising the one or more interactive data structures.

12. The method of claim 7 wherein receiving comprises receiving a notification of a user'"'"'s navigation throughout the one or more interactive data structures.

13. The method of claim 7 wherein receiving one or more modifications comprises receiving an indication of a combination of two or more objects.

14. The method of claim 7 comprising modifying the one or more items of content according to the modifications made to the one or more associated objects.

15. The method of claim 7 wherein propagating comprises:

identifying an action associated with the one or more modifications;

identifying an application operative to execute the identified action; and

executing the action through the use of the one or more modifications by the application.

16. A system for facilitating the interaction with one or more items of content, the system comprising:

a search engine operative to retrieve one or more items of content; and

an object component operative to;

generate one or more objects associated with the one or more items of content,

combine the one or more objects to form an interactive data structure, and

transmit the interactive data structure to a client device.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the object component is operative to associate the one or more objects with one or more applications.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the object component is operative to combine one or more objects according to a structure identified by the content associated with the one or more objects.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein the object component is operative to receive an indication of one or more modifications made to the one or more objects comprising the interactive data structure.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the object component is operative to propagate the one or more modifications to the interactive data structure associated with the one or more objects.

21. The system of claim 19 wherein the object component is operative to receive a user interaction with the one or more objects comprising the interactive data structure and modify the content associated with the one or more objects according to the user interaction.

22. The system of claim 16 wherein an object component is operative to:

receive an indication of the combination of a plurality of objects;

identify the content associated with the plurality of objects;

identify an action associated with the combination of the plurality of objects; and

execute the action associated with the combination of the plurality of objects using an application associated with the action and the content associated with the plurality of objects.