METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REPRESENTING AN INTEREST PRIORITY OF AN OBJECT TO A USER BASED ON PERSONAL HISTORIES OR SOCIAL CONTEXT

• US 20080235607A1
• Filed: 06/09/2008
• Published: 09/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/08/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Muller, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,302,018 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/764
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3326 using relevance feedback from the user, e.g. relevance feedback on documents, documents sets, document terms or passages
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A method and apparatus assigns a quantative variable to each object (or set of objects) in a collection available to a user. The quantative variable is referred to as the Interest Priority Value (IPV). The IPV defines a range of states of the object, between ‘accessed’ and ‘unaccessed’, and is calculated based on one or more attributes of the object. A object with the highest IPV is the most ‘unaccessed,’ and the object with the lowest IPV is the least ‘unaccessed.’ The IPV may be used in a visual representation of the collection of objects, thereby permitting a user to readily identify and obtain those objects of greatest interest to the particular user.

Claims

1. A computer system for use by a user, the computer system having a graphical display device, where the user is capable of accessing a collection of objects, the computer system comprising:

an icon, stored in a memory of the computer system, the icon associated with one or more of the objects in the collection, and having a visual feature that is controlled according to an attribute of the one or more objects in the collection.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the icon is comprised of at least two visual features, each visual feature being displayed in response to a different attribute of the associated object in the collection.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the attribute associated with the object is a temporal attribute of the each object.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the attribute associated with the object is whether the object is sourced by an author of interest to the user.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the attribute associated with the object is determined by group memberships of other users who have accessed the object.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the attribute associated with the object is determined by the identities of other users who have accessed the object.

7. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the attribute associated with the object is further determined by the relationship of the user to each of the other users who have accessed the object.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the attribute associated with the object is determined by the identities of other users who have accessed the object.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the attribute associated with the object is further determined by the relationship of the user to each of the other users who have accessed the object.

8. A method of visually representing the attractiveness of an object to a user in a graphical display device of a computer system, where the user is capable of accessing a collection of objects, comprising:

displaying an icon, the icon stored in a memory of the computer system, the icon associated with one or more of the objects in the collection, and the icon having a visual feature that is controlled according to an attribute of the one or more objects in the collection.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the icon is comprised of at least two visual features, each visual feature being displayed in response to a different attribute of the associated object in the collection.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the attribute associated with the object is a temporal attribute of the associated object in the collection.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the attribute associated with the object is whether the object is sourced by an author of interest to the user.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the attribute associated with the object is determined by group memberships of other users who have accessed the object.

15. A computer program product comprising:

a computer readable medium; and

program code stored on the computer readable medium for visually representing the attractiveness of an object to a user in a graphical display device of a computer system, where the user is capable of accessing a collection of objects, by displaying an icon, the icon stored in a memory of the computer system, the icon associated with one or more of the objects in the collection, and the icon having a visual feature that is controlled according to an attribute of the one or more objects in the collection.

16. A system of visually representing the attractiveness of an object to a user in a graphical display device of a computer system, where the user is capable of accessing a collection of objects, comprising:

means for displaying an icon, the icon stored in a memory of the computer system, the icon associated with one or more of the objects in the collection, and the icon having a visual feature that is controlled according to an attribute of the one or more objects in the collection.