METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR A DISTRIBUTABLE GLOBE GRAPHICAL OBJECT

• US 20110185298A1
• Filed: 01/25/2011
• Published: 07/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kingdom Resources, LLC
• Original Assignee: Kingdom Resources, LLC
• Inventors: Skatter, Sondre, Tolson, Michael
• Application Number:
  US13/013,612
• Publication Number:
  US 20110185298A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/765
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

A method and system for providing enhanced intelligent agents that are moveable by a user from a browser application to a desktop. In specific embodiments, agents provide advanced interactive graphics and communications back to a server.

Claims

1. A method of presenting data over a network comprising:

providing on a display device of a data processor a persistent graphical object representing a globe that depicts a plurality of geographical points and a plurality of geographical regions representative of geographical locations of a physical world;

extracting from a data memory a plurality of content elements from at least one data file, at least one of the content elements conveying information related to at least one geographical location of the physical world;

superimposing the at least one content element on the graphical object at the geographical point or geographical region that is representative of the geographical location of the physical world to which the content element relates;

presenting said graphical object in a composition accessed by an initial application, said object having state and having one or more external connections; and

allowing a user to relocate of said graphical object to a location outside of said initial application.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein said graphical object, once relocated, will persist and maintain state after termination of said initial application.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein said initial application location is a web browser and said new location is a desktop provided by an operating system.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein at least some of said content elements convey at least one of the following types of information:

one or more images indicating weather in various locations; and

one or more links indicating news stories related to a particular location displayed on said globe.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein said relocation may be repeated from a current location to any number of additional platforms.

6. The method according to claim 3 wherein said desktop provided by an operating system is an interface of a platform, said platform selected from the group consisting of:

a windows personal computer, a Macintosh personal computer, a Unix-type operating system, a set-top box, a wireless logic appliance, an internet appliance, a personal digital assistant, or another device connected to a network.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein said new location is selected from the group consisting of:

a desktop provided by an operating system, and a different computer platform with a different operating system.

8. The method according to claim 1 wherein said graphical object comprises:

one or more user interface components and wherein said components are preserved after a relocation; and

one or more connections to one or more external entities and wherein said connections are persistent.

9. The method according to claim 1 wherein said allowing a user to indicate relocation comprises selecting and dragging a graphical object.

10. The method according to claim 1 wherein said allowing a user to indicate relocation comprises discontinuously selecting a graphical object and placing said object in a new location.

11. The method according to claim 8 wherein said one or more external entities are selected from the group consisting of:

web servers, other applications, background processes, and other remote processes.

12. An electronic data processing system presenting web content comprising:

an information appliance displayable representation of a globe, where the globe is persistent and is displayed using an electronic data hardware processing device and wherein the globe depicts a plurality of geographical points and a plurality of Geographical regions representative of geographical locations of a physical world;

a

logic module that projects web content onto the surface of said representation of the globe;

wherein the logic module is configured to extract a plurality of content elements from at least one electronic data file of a separate application and to superimpose the at least one content element on the globe at the geographical point or geographical region that is representative of the geographical location of the physical world to which the content element relates.

13. A system according to claim 12 wherein said information appliance is configured to provide the representation of the globe through a web browser operating on the electronic data hardware processing as embedded in a web page and can be relocated to reside on an operating system desktop.

14. A system according to claim 12 further comprising means for rendering web content on the globe as channels, wherein a channel is a set of related content from a content provider, an association of content providers, or a broker of web content, and wherein a content item in a channel has a geographical distribution.

15. A system according to claim 14 further comprising means for associating the content item with points on said representation of the globe or regions on said representation of the globe.

16. A system according to claim 14 further comprising means for providing a textual window that will pop up that reveals details about the content item when a cursor is moved over the content item.

17. A system according to claim 14 further comprising means for associating the content item with actions that are triggered when a user selects the content item.

18. A system according to claim 17 wherein said actions are one or more selected from the group consisting of:

opening a web browser with a Uniform Resource Locator link as a parameter;

bringing content to the globe with a parameter the web address of content; and

initiation of communication to a user of a persistent graphical object representing a rotating globe that depicts a plurality of geographical points and a plurality of geographical regions representative of geographical locations of a physical world through email, chat, or sending an instant message.

19. A system according to claim 14 further comprising means for defining channels using Extensible Markup Language format describing content at least in terms of geographic position, click-action, and parameters for click action.

20. A system according to claim 19 wherein channels reference persistent user application sub-compositions configured to be added dynamically to an application that creates a persistent graphical object representing a rotating globe that depicts a plurality of geographical points and a plurality of geographical regions representative of geographical locations of a physical world.