Exploded views for providing rich regularized geometric transformations and interaction models on content for viewing, previewing, and interacting with documents, projects, and tasks

• US 8,707,214 B2
• Filed: 10/27/2008
• Issued: 04/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Horvitz, Eric J., Cheng, Lili, Wu, Jia-Chi
• Primary Examiner(s): SAX, STEVEN PAUL
• Application Number:
  US12/258,802
• Publication Number:
  US 20090064018A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,003 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/313, 709/220, 434/365, 434/322, 707/10, 707/100, 715/752, 715/758, 715/808, 715/821, 715848-852, 715853-855, 715/822, 715/824, 715/837, 715/847, 715/838, 715/823, 715765-767
• US Class Current: 715/851
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/34 Browsing; Visualisation therefor

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method to facilitate efficient and automated presentation of information to users. A decomposition component automatically decomposes an information item into sets of subcomponents in a two- or three-dimensional isometric space, and generates visualizations having interactive graphics that allow users to inspect respective subcomponents. Interface features are provided to enable hover, dwell, and clicking commands, for example, providing a variety of options to zoom in, or change configurations of the visualization in accordance with the users intentions or inferences about what they desire to see or inspect more closely. Beyond the use of decompositions into exploded views of the content of items typically viewed as singular documents, the methods can be applied to perform geometric transformations on visualizations of multiple windows and other resources based on content and activity to provide regularized visualizations of the multiple items. Such exploded views can provide visual geometric summaries of projects, and a set of handles into accessing more detail on the subcomponents of the project.

Claims

1. A graphical user interface in a display, comprising:

at least one display object for displaying component portions of a file in respective formats of the component portions, wherein the component portions are capable of being associated with a plurality of formats, including a text format, a presentation format, a graphics format, an email file format, and a sound file format, the component portions being associated with at least two formats of the plurality of formats including the text format, the presentation format, the graphics format, the sound file format, or the email file format and the component portions having an initial component portion displayed on an x-axis and a y-axis, wherein;

the y-axis is perpendicular to the x-axis within a graphical user interface; and

the remaining component portions are cascaded along a z-axis within the graphical user interface, relative to the initial component portion;

at least one user control for retrieving portions of information from the component portions cascaded along the z-axis within the graphical user interface; and

a summary component to summarize documents or projects in a dynamic application, the summary component minimizes an application into a smaller rendering that is replaced at focus by another application that is optionally minimized into an exploded view, the exploded view being automatically positioned to a side of a screen and minimized per specified preferences, the exploded view including a set of messages that a user has opened within a time horizon, cascaded to the side of a task in an order that the user can read the messages.

2. The graphical user interface of claim 1, the component portions when associated with the email file format include indications of people being added or dropped as a conversation has progressed.

3. The graphical user interface of claim 1, the component portions being capable of changes to colors or sounds based upon characteristics of a selected or displayed component portion.

4. The graphical user interface of claim 1, the component portions when associated with the email file format enable users to navigate directly to a portion of a conversation of interest.

5. The graphical user interface of claim 1, the component portions when associated with the email file format include at least two sub-threads or sub-conversations that have been spawned from an initial message.

6. The graphical user interface of claim 1, the messages are automatically resorted by time or priority of the messages, per user settable preferences.

7. The graphical user interface of claim 1, the exploded view allows a user to interact with components of a task separately when the components of the task are minimized and to bring to focus selected items.

8. The graphical user interface of claim 1, the exploded view provides access to a gesture that returns a task to an initial rendering when last at focus or return the task to a starting point view.

9. The graphical user interface of claim 1, further comprising a metadata schema that captures information including at least one of a time, a nature, or a duration of a user'"'"'s access.

10. The graphical user interface of claim 9, the schema associated with attentional annotations that are stored as metadata capturing for different parts of a document, how long a user was noted to have viewed or to have actively worked on components of the document.

11. The graphical user interface of claim 9, the schema information is employed in decisions regarding a geometric layout and highlighting of information including an explicit use of metaphors to show regions that have been most attended to or that have been attended to in the lifetime of the document or project.

12. A method of implementing a graphical user interface, the method comprising:

displaying, via a display object, component portions of a file having separate respective formats corresponding to the respective component portions and an initial component portion oriented according to an x-axis and a y-axis, wherein the y-axis is perpendicular to the x-axis, wherein the remaining component portions cascade along a z-axis of display corresponding to the initial component portion within a graphical user interface, and wherein the component portions are capable of being associated with at least a text document, a presentation document, a graphics document, an email file, and a sound file, the component portions being associated with at least two respective formats corresponding to the text document, the presentation document, the graphics document, the email file, or the sound file;

summarizing, via a summary component, documents or projects in a dynamic application, the summary component minimizing an application into a smaller rendering that is replaced at focus by another application that is optionally minimized into an exploded view including a set of messages that a user has opened within a time horizon, cascaded to the side of a task in an order such that the user can read the messages; and

retrieving, via a user control, portions of information from the component portions cascading along the z-axis of display.

13. One or more computer storage devices having computer readable instructions stored thereon that upon execution via a processor program a computer to implement the graphical user interface in accordance with claim 12.

18. The method as recited in claim 12, the exploded view being automatically positioned to a side of a screen and being minimized per specified preferences.

19. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein at least one of:

the email file includes indications of people being added or dropped as a conversation has progressed;

the email file changes colors or sounds based upon characteristics of a selected or displayed item;

the email file enables users to navigate directly to a portion of a conversation of interest;

or

the email file including at least two sub-threads or sub-conversations that have been spawned from an initial message.

20. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the exploded view provides for interaction with components of a task separately when the components of the task are minimized and to bring to focus selected items.

14. One or more computer storage devices having computer readable instructions stored thereon that upon execution via a processor program a computer to implement a graphical user interface, comprising:

at least one display object for displaying component portions of a file, wherein the component portions are capable of being associated with a plurality of file types, including a text document, a presentation document, a graphics document, an email file, and a sound file, and the component portions are associated with at least two file types of the plurality of file types including the text document, the presentation document, the graphics document, the email file, or the sound file rendered along an axis of display within a graphical user interface;

at least one user control for retrieving portions of information from the component portions rendered along the axis of display; and

a summary component to summarize documents or projects, the summary component to minimize an application into a smaller rendering that is replaced at focus by another application that is optionally minimized into an exploded view including a set of messages that a user has opened within a time horizon, cascaded to the side of a task in an order that the user can read the messages.

15. The one or more computer storage devices as recited in claim 14, the summary component to summarize documents or projects in a dynamic application.

16. The one or more computer storage devices as recited in claim 14, the exploded view being automatically positioned to a side of a screen and being minimized per specified preferences.

17. The one or more computer storage devices as recited in claim 14, wherein at least one of:

the email file includes indications of people being added or dropped as a conversation has progressed;

the email file changes colors or sounds based upon characteristics of a selected or displayed item;

the email file enables users to navigate directly to a portion of a conversation of interest;

or

the email file including at least two sub-threads or sub-conversations that have been spawned from an initial message.