Image and information management system

• US 7,519,238 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Issued: 04/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: United Space Alliance LLC
• Original Assignee: United Space Alliance LLC
• Inventors: Raney, Michael C., Brucker, Russell X., Robertson, Tina L., Dougherty, Dennis M., Kent, Peter C., Lampert, Daryl A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bella; Matthew C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bayat; Ali
• Application Number:
  US11/863,765
• Publication Number:
  US 20080019614A1
• Time in Patent Office: 564 Days
• Field of Search: 382/305, 382/306, 382/307, 358/403, 358/404, 707/2, 707/4, 707/7, 707/101, 707/102, 707/100, 707/104.1
• US Class Current: 382/305
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A system and methods through which pictorial views of an object'"'"'s configuration, arranged in a hierarchical fashion, are navigated by a person to establish a visual context within the configuration. The visual context is automatically translated by the system into a set of search parameters driving retrieval of structured data and content (images, documents, multimedia, etc.) associated with the specific context. The system places “hot spots”, or actionable regions, on various portions of the pictorials representing the object. When a user interacts with an actionable region, a more detailed pictorial from the hierarchy is presented representing that portion of the object, along with real-time feedback in the form of a popup pane containing information about that region, and counts-by-type reflecting the number of items that are available within the system associated with the specific context and search filters established at that point in time.

Claims

1. An information management system comprising:

at least one image of an object, wherein the object is comprised of a plurality of components;

a plurality of images of at least a subset of the plurality of components;

at least one first data table, wherein the first data table stores at least one relationship between the plurality of components and the object;

at least one second data table, wherein the second data table stores associations between the at least one image of the object and the object;

at least one third data table, wherein the third data table stores associations between the plurality of images of the plurality of components and the plurality of components;

at least one fourth data table, wherein the fourth data table stores an identified at least one actionable region associated with the at least one image of the object, and wherein the fourth data table associates at least one action with each of the stored at least one actionable regions; and

,

a user interface, wherein the user interface displays at least one of the plurality of component images or the at least one object image, wherein the user interface monitors user interaction to determine when a user activates a user actionable region.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the second data table and the third data table are part of the same data table.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one database.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the first data table, the second data table, the third data table, and the fourth data table, are stored in the at least one database.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the plurality of images of at least a subset of the plurality of components and the at least one image of the object are stored within the at least one database.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one fifth data table, the fifth data table storing an identified at least one actionable region and permitting the at least one actionable region to be associated with at least one of the images.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising a sixth data table, wherein the sixth data table stores at least one association between information about at least one of the plurality of components and the plurality of components.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface causes the information about at least one of the plurality of components to be displayed when an actionable region associated with a component is activated.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface further comprises a dashboard.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface changes based on the information to be presented therein.

11. The system of claim 1, the user interface comprising a toolbar when a component image is displayed, wherein the toolbar facilitates zooming in and out and reporting misfiled images.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the first data table further stores the relationship between each component and any sub-components thereof.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the first data table stores the relationships in an hierarchical data structure.

14. A method of presenting information to a user, comprising:

receiving at least one image of an object;

receiving a plurality of images of a plurality of components, wherein the object comprises the plurality of components;

storing first information about at least a subset of the plurality of components;

storing second information about the object;

associating the stored first information with an appropriate one of the plurality of components;

associating at least one first actionable region with at least a subset of the at least one images of the object;

associating an action with the at least one first actionable region;

associating at least one second actionable region with at least a subset of the plurality of images of the plurality of components;

displaying for a user at least one image of the object;

monitoring actions made by the user to determine when one of the at least one first actionable regions has been activated and performing the action associated with the activated first actionable region;

displaying for the user at least one of the plurality of component images; and

,

monitoring actions made by the user to determine when one of the at least one second actionable regions associated with the displayed at least one component images has been activated.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising associating an action with the at least one second actionable region and performing the action associated with the activated second actionable region when one of the at least one second actionable regions has been activated.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least one action associated with a second actionable region comprises displaying information about the component in the image containing the second actionable region.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the displaying of at least one of the plurality of component images and the monitoring of user actions to determine when one of the at least one actionable regions associated with the displayed at least one component images has been activated are iteratively repeated, thereby permitting the user to drill down to a desired component.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising displaying a toolbar when the at least one of the plurality of images of the plurality of components is displayed for the user.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the toolbar permits the user to at least zoom in, zoom out, and rotate the displayed image.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising displaying a dashboard when any of the at least one images of the object are displayed.