INTERFACE FOR PREVIEWING IMAGE CONTENT

• US 20130176333A1
• Filed: 01/11/2012
• Published: 07/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: AGAR, John Michael, BOUCHER, Antoine Gilles Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 8,963,953 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/629
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00137 Transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00161 Viewing or previewing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00167 Processing or editing H04N1/00196 - H04N1/00201 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00177 from a user terminal, e.g. personal computer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00198 Creation of a soft photo presentation, e.g. digital slide-show

Abstract

What is disclosed is a novel method and system to present image content from a variety of informational sources. Presentation from a variety of image sizes and formats, such as standard and panoramic format is possible. The method includes accessing at least two information sources each with separate image content. Next, each of the separate image content is interspersed in an arrangement so that content overlaps in with each other and at least some of the image content is automatically resized to concurrently present image content in a plurality of different image sizes and in a film strip arrangement. The image content is presented from each of the information sources along with the source indicator in a film strip arrangement.

Claims

1. A method on an electronic device comprising:

accessing at least two information sources each with separate image content;

placing a source indicator in proximity to each of the separate image content to indicate a source of an associated information feed;

interspersing each of the separate image content in a film strip arrangement with each of the image content placed into a distinct frame of the film strip; and

presenting on a display, the image content from each of the information sources along with the source indicator in the film strip arrangement.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the film strip arrangement is one of a horizontal film strip arrangement and a vertical film strip arrangement.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the information sources is from a first social media source and a second of the information sources is provided by a second social media source.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a first of the information sources is from a private pictorial information source with access controlled by a user and a second of the information sources is provided by a third party social media site with the user and at least one additional user permitted access the information source provided by the third party social media site.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to receiving a user input, scrolling through the image content in each frame of the film strip in a first direction.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the separate image content in the film strip arrangement is stored as a circular buffer in order to provide continuous scrolling through each frame of the film strip arrangement by logically returning to a first frame of the film strip arrangement after presenting a last frame of the film strip.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

interspersing each of the separate image content in an arrangement so that content overlaps in with each other and at least some of the image content is automatically resized to present image content in both a landscape and portrait overlapping arrangement.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the resizing for each of the separate image content includes:

selecting a target area size from a pool of target area sizes;

calculating an area of the image content;

calculating a scaling factor for the image content by dividing the target area by the area of the image content; and

resizing the image content based on the scaling factor.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

cropping the image content that has been resized to fit a predetermined aspect ratio.

10. A method to provide an graphical interface comprising:

accessing at least two information sources each with separate image content; and

interspersing each of the separate image content in an arrangement so that content overlaps in with each other and at least a portion of the image content is automatically resized to concurrently present image content in a plurality of different image sizes and in a film strip arrangement.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the film strip arrangement is an overlapping arrangement where each image partially overlaps with at least one adjacent image.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the image content that is automatically resized by:

selecting a target area size from a pool of target area sizes;

calculating an area of the image content;

calculating a scaling factor for the image content by dividing the target area by the area of the image content; and

resizing the image content based on the scaling factor.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

cropping the image content that has been resized to fit a predetermined aspect ratio.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

placing an indicator in proximity to each of the separate image content to indicate a source of an associated information feed; and

presenting the image content with the indicator on a display.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein one of the information sources is from a first social media source and a second of the information sources is provided by a second social media source.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein one of the information sources is from a private pictorial information source with access controlled by a user and a second of the information sources is provided by a third party social media site with the access control allowing the user and one additional user to access the information sources.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

in response to receiving a user'"'"'s command, scrolling through each of the image content in a first direction.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the separate image content in the film strip arrangement is stored as a circular buffer in order to provide continuous scrolling through each frame of the film strip arrangement by logically returning to a first frame of the film strip arrangement after presenting a last frame of the film strip.

19. An electronic device, the electronic device comprising:

a memory;

a processor communicatively coupled to the memory; and

a preview manager communicatively coupled to the memory and the processor, the preview manager configured to perform;

accessing at least two information sources each with separate image content;

interspersing each of the separate image content in an arrangement so that content overlaps in with each other and at least some of the image content is automatically resized to concurrently present image content in a plurality of different image sizes and in a film strip arrangement; and

presenting on a display, the image content from each of the information sources along with a source indicator in a film strip arrangement.

20. The electronic device of claim 19, wherein the film strip arrangement is an overlapping arrangement where each image partially overlaps with at least one adjacent image.

21. The electronic device of claim 19, wherein the image content that is automatically resized by:

selecting a target area size from a pool of target area sizes;

calculating an area of the image content;

calculating a scaling factor for the image content by dividing the target area by the area of the image content; and

resizing the image content based on the scaling factor.