SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DISPLAYING BAR CHARTS WITH A FIXED MAGNIFICATION AREA

• US 20100194754A1
• Filed: 01/30/2009
• Published: 08/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: MeLLmo Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Alsbury, Quinton, Remillard, Claire B., Becerra, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,228,330 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/440
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/045 Zooming at least part of an image, i.e. enlarging it or shrinking it
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/145 related to small screens

Abstract

A system and a method are disclosed for visually displaying data points using charts on a display screen with limited display area. A fixed magnification area allows presentation of detailed information for some data points compared to other data points that are displayed. The chart can be moved relative to the fixed magnification area thereby changing the data points displayed within the fixed magnification area that present additional information. The relative movement between the chart and the fixed magnification area is triggered by different kinds of inputs from the user including, tilting of the device, swiping with a pointing device and selecting a particular data point.

Claims

1. A method for displaying on a display screen of a mobile device a chart representing a plurality of data points, the method comprising:

displaying a first set of data points on the display screen, each data point in the first set displayed having a fixed width and a height variable according to a value of the data point;

displaying a second set of data points on the display screen, each data point in the second set displayed having a width greater than the fixed width and a height variable according to a value of the data point; and

responsive to receiving a user input, altering the display of at least one of the data points in the first set to have a width greater than the fixed width, and altering at least one of the data points in the second set to have the fixed width.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each data point has at least one associated label, and the label is not displayed for data points in the first set, and is displayed for data points in the second set.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set is displayed in a fixed region on the display.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein altering the display further comprises locating the at least one of the data points in the first set to be displayed in the fixed region.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set is displayed in a moveable region on the display.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein altering the display further comprises moving the fixed region to incorporate the at least one of the data points in the first set.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the chart is a bar chart, and the data points are bars of the bar chart.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second data set includes a single data point.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the chart is a bar chart and the magnification area is a rectangular portion of the chart display area parallel to a bar displayed in the bar chart.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input includes tilting the display screen.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein a rate at which the display is altered is dependent at least in part upon the degree of tilt of the display screen.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input includes a swiping gesture across the display screen.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein a rate at which the display is altered is dependent at least in part upon a speed of the swiping gesture.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input identifies the data points to be altered.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein altering the display further comprises moving at least some of the displayed data points from a first location on the display to a second location on the display.

16. The method of claim 2, wherein each label is displayed overlaid on its associated data point in the second set.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the chart is a multi-series chart

18. A method for displaying on a display screen of a mobile device a chart representing a plurality of data points, the method comprising:

displaying a first set of data points on the display screen, each data point in the first set represented by a first image;

displaying a second set of data points on the display screen, each data point in the second set represented by a second image larger than the first image and displaying an associated label, wherein the label is not displayed for the data points in the first set; and

responsive to receiving a user input, altering the display of at least one of the data points in the first set to be represented by the second size and display the label, and altering at least one of the data points in the second set to have the first size and not display the label.

19. A system for displaying on a display screen of a mobile device a chart representing a plurality of data points, the system comprising:

a computer processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium storing computer program modules configured to execute on the computer processor, the computer program modules comprising;

an input/output driver module configured to;

display a first set of data points on the display screen, each data point in the first set displayed having a fixed width and a variable height according to a value of the data point;

display a second set of data points on the display screen, each data point in the second set displayed having a width greater than the fixed width and a variable height according to a value of the data point; and

responsive to receiving a user input, alter the display of at least one of the data points in the first set to have a width greater than the fixed width, and alter at least one of the data points in the second set to have the fixed width.

20. A computer program product having a computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable code for displaying on a display screen of a mobile device a chart representing a plurality of data points, the code comprising:

an input/output driver module configured to;

display a first set of data points on the display screen, each data point in the first set displayed having a fixed width and a variable height according to a value of the data point;

display a second set of data points on the display screen, each data point in the second set displayed having a width greater than the fixed width and a variable height according to a value of the data point; and

responsive to receiving a user input, alter the display of at least one of the data points in the first set to have a width greater than the fixed width, and alter at least one of the data points in the second set to have the fixed width.