Method and apparatus for panel-based management of data

• US 8,751,538 B1
• Filed: 10/19/2011
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Wheeler, Aaron, Prada Gomez, Luis Ricardo
• Primary Examiner(s): Perveen, Rehana
• Assistant Examiner(s): BUI, THUY T
• Application Number:
  US13/276,702
• Time in Patent Office: 965 Days
• Field of Search: 707/791, 707/802
• US Class Current: 707/791
• 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: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/55 for hybrid networks

Abstract

A mechanism for providing panel-based management of data. In accordance with instructions on a machine-readable medium, a computing system receives data objects from various sources such as various user devices and application servers. Further, the computing system causes a device to display a graphical user interface through which a user can define panels that will be associated with various received data objects, so as to define a record, by time or subject matter, of relevant data objects. Further, the computing system allows a user to readily switch from display of one panel to display of another panel, so as to assist the user with multi-tasking and associated context switching.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions executable by a computing system to carry out functions comprising:

receiving data objects from a plurality of sources, and storing the received data objects, wherein each of the received data objects defines a record of information regarding at least one of a device event or a device state, and wherein each data object has a timestamp;

storing a plurality of panels each defining a respective association with a set of the received data objects, the panels including at least one of a time-based panel or a subject-matter panel, wherein a time-based panel is a panel defining an association with received data objects based on timestamps of the received data objects, and wherein a subject-matter panel is a panel defining an association with received data objects based on subject matter of the received data objects in accordance with a subject-matter filter of the subject-matter panel;

causing a display of a device to display a graphical user interface having at least;

(a) a general data-feed component for presenting indicia of the received data objects,

(b) a panel-presentation component for presenting indicia of previously created panels, wherein the indicia of previously created panels presented by the panel-management component are selectable to cause the display to present expanded indicia of the sets of data objects associated with the indicated panels, and

(c) a panel-definition component for receiving commands to create new panels and to further define the previously created panels, and for receiving selection of one or more of the received data objects to be used as a basis to define a subject-matter filter for a new or previously created panel;

receiving data corresponding to input representing selection of at least one of the received data objects to be used as a basis to define a subject-matter filter for a first panel, and responsively promoting each of the at least one selected data objects to the subject-matter filter for the first panel; and

receiving data corresponding to input representing one of the commands to create a new panel received through the panel-definition component, and responsively creating the new panel.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein promoting each of the at least one selected data object to the subject-matter filter for the first panel comprises:

determining the one or more attributes of the at least one selected data object; and

making each of the determined one or more attributes a filter parameter of the subject-matter filter for the first panel.

3. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein a command to create a particular new panel is by default a command to create one of the at least one time-based panels unless and until a particular subject-matter filter is defined for the particular new panel.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the record of information defined by each received data object comprises a record of information regarding user-interface operation.

5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computing system is implemented by the device whose display is caused to display the graphical user interface.

6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein the plurality of sources comprises sources selected from a group consisting of (i) logic modules of the device and (ii) other devices in communication with the device.

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computing system is implemented as a cloud-based computing system, wherein the plurality of sources comprise devices in network communication with the cloud-based computing system.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the device whose display is caused to display the graphical user interface is also in network communication with the cloud-based computing system.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions executable by a computing system to carry out functions comprising:

receiving data objects from a plurality of sources, and storing the received data objects, wherein each data object defines a record of information regarding at least one of a device event or a device state, and wherein each data object has a timestamp;

storing a plurality of panels each defining a respective association with a set of the received data objects, the panels including at least one of a time-based panel or a subject-matter panel, wherein a time-based panel is a panel defining an association with received data objects based on timestamps of the received data objects, and wherein a subject-matter panel is a panel defining an association with received data objects based on subject matter of the received data objects in accordance with a subject-matter filter of the subject-matter panel;

causing a display of a device to display a graphical user interface having at least;

(a) a general data-feed component for presenting indicia of the received data objects, wherein the indicia of the received data objects presented in the general data-feed component are selectable to cause the display to present the respectively indicated data objects,

(b) a panel-presentation component for presenting indicia of previously created panels, wherein the presented indicia of the previously created panels include, for each of the previously created panels, presentation of an indicium of the set of received data objects associated with the previously created panel, and

(c) a panel-definition component for receiving commands to create new panels and to further define the previously created panels, for presenting indicia of items selectable to be used as a basis to define a subject-matter filter respectively for each of at least one of the panels, and for receiving selection of one or more of the presented indicia of items to be used as a basis to define the subject-matter filter, wherein the items comprise (i) one or more of the received data objects and (ii) one or more semantic objects extracted from the received data objects;

receiving data corresponding to input representing the selection of one or more of the presented indicia of items to be used as a basis to define the subject-matter filter for a first panel, and responsively defining the subject-matter filter for the first panel based on one or more attributes of the one or more items whose presented indicia were selected;

determining that one or more of the received data objects defines a record that a user device presented particular information at user request, and responsively determining an attribute of the particular information and automatically creating and storing a second panel having a subject-matter filter keyed to the determined attribute; and

receiving data corresponding to input representing one of the commands to create a new panel received through the panel-definition component, and responsively (i) creating the new panel and (ii) causing the display to present the indicia of items selectable to be used as a basis to define the subject-matter filter for the new panel.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein a command to create a particular new panel is by default a command to create one of the at least one time-based panels unless and until a particular subject-matter filter is defined for the particular new panel.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the functions further comprise:

receiving data corresponding to input representing a request to switch between display of a particular panel and display of another panel; and

responsive to the request, causing the display to switch from displaying the particular panel to displaying the other panel.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the record of information defined by each received data object comprises a record of information regarding user-interface operation.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the indicia of previously created panels presented by the panel-management component are selectable to cause the display to present expanded indicia of the sets of data objects associated with the indicated panels.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the computing system is implemented by the device whose display is caused to display the graphical user interface.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the plurality of sources comprise sources selected from a group consisting of (i) logic modules of the device and (ii) other devices in communication with the device.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the computing system is implemented as a cloud-based computing system, wherein the plurality of sources comprise devices in network communication with the cloud-based computing system.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the device whose display is caused to display the graphical user interface is also in network communication with the cloud-based computing system.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the functions further comprise:

automatically causing the display to display the automatically created second panel.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the one or more received data objects defining the record that the user device presented particular information at user request comprise one or more data objects defining a record that the user device presented a new window at user request, the window containing the particular information.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the functions further comprise:

extracting the one or more semantic objects from the received data objects; and

generating the indicia of the items selectable to be used as a basis to define the subject-matter filter for the new panel.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein a given one of the received data objects represents a message, and wherein extracting the semantic objects comprises:

for the given data object, extracting as at least one of the semantic objects an identity of a sender or recipient of the message.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein defining the subject-matter filter for the new panel based on the one or more attributes of the one or more items whose presented indicia were selected comprises:

determining the one or more attributes of the one or more items whose presented indicia were selected; and

defining the subject-matter filter of the new panel to limit to any of the received data objects that have the one or more determined attributes.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the functions further comprise:

after defining the subject-matter filter for the new panel, causing the display to display the new panel as a subject-matter panel including an indicium of a set of data objects matching the subject-matter filter defined for the new panel.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the functions further comprise:

receiving data corresponding to input defining one of the commands to create a new panel received through the panel-definition component, and responsively causing the display to present the new panel as a time-based panel populated with indicia of any data objects received by the computing system while the new panel is being displayed.

25. A method comprising:

receiving into a computing system, from a plurality of devices, a plurality of data objects each representing one or more of device event information and device state information;

the computing system extracting one or more semantic objects from the received data objects;

the computing system causing a display of a device to display indicia of (i) a plurality of the received data objects and (ii) a plurality of the semantic objects extracted from the received data objects;

the computing system receiving data corresponding to input representing a selection of one or more of the displayed indicia, and the computing system responsively using the selection as a basis to define a first subject-matter filter for a first panel, wherein the selection comprises a selection of one or more of the displayed indicia of the plurality of received data objects, and wherein using the selection as a basis to define the first subject-matter filter comprises adopting as one or more attributes of the first subject-matter filter one or more attributes of the one or more data objects whose indicia were selected;

the computing system causing the display to present the first panel;

the computing system (i) receiving additional data objects, (ii) determining that the received additional data objects match the first subject-matter filter of the first panel, and (iii) responsive to the determining, causing the display to present indicia of the received additional data objects in association with the presented first panel;

the computing system determining that one or more of the received data objects defines a record that a user device presented particular information at user request, and the computing system responsively determining an attribute of the particular information and automatically creating and storing a second panel having a second subject-matter filter keyed to the determined attribute;

the computing system causing the display to present the second panel;

the computing system storing the first panel in association with the received additional data objects;

the computing system causing the display to discontinue presentation of the first panel; and

the computing system subsequently receiving data representing input defining a request to re-present the first panel, and the computing system responsively causing the first panel to be re-presented.

26. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions executable by a computing system to carry out functions comprising:

receiving from a plurality of devices a plurality of data objects each representing one or more of device event information and device state information;

extracting one or more semantic objects from the received data objects;

causing a display of a device to present indicia of (i) a plurality of the received data objects and (ii) a plurality of the semantic objects extracted from the received data objects;

receiving data corresponding to input representing a selection of one or more of the presented indicia, and using the selection as a basis to define a first subject-matter filter for a first panel, wherein the selection comprises a selection of one or more of the displayed indicia of the plurality of received data objects, and wherein using the selection as a basis to define the first subject-matter filter comprises adopting as one or more attributes of the first subject-matter filter one or more attributes of the one or more data objects whose indicia were selected;

causing the display to present the first panel;

receiving one or more additional data objects, determining that the one or more received additional data objects match the first subject-matter of the first panel, and responsive to the determining, (i) associating the first panel with the one or more received additional data objects and (ii) causing the display to present indicia of the one or more received additional data objects in association with the presented first panel;

storing the first panel in association with the received additional data objects;

determining that one or more received data objects defines a record that a user device presented particular information at user request, and responsively determining an attribute of the particular information and automatically creating and storing a second panel having a second subject-matter filter keyed to the determined attribute;

causing the display to present the second panel;

receiving data corresponding to input representing a request to create a time-based panel, and responsively creating and causing the display to present the time-based panel;

while the display is presenting the time-based panel, receiving one or more further data objects and automatically causing the display to present the one or more received further data objects in association with the presented time-based panel; and

storing the time-based panel in association with the one or more received further data objects.