Three-dimensional interface for content location

• US 8,830,225 B1
• Filed: 03/25/2010
• Issued: 09/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Karakotsios, Kenneth M., Bozarth, Bradley J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Amini, Javid A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ge, Jin
• Application Number:
  US12/732,083
• Time in Patent Office: 1,629 Days
• Field of Search: 345/419
• US Class Current: 345/419
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/00 3D [Three Dimensional] image rendering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/20 Perspective computation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/20 Editing of 3D images, e.g. changing shapes or colours, aligning objects or positioning parts
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2219/2016 Rotation, translation, scaling
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/60 Rotation of whole images or parts thereof

Abstract

Instances of content, such as search results or browse items, can be displayed using a plurality of three-dimensional elements, with selected pieces of information for each instance placed upon faces, sides, or other portions of those elements. A user can view similar information for each of the instances of content by rotating the elements, such as by interacting with an input element or rotating a portable computing device rendering the elements. The user can apply various filtering criteria or value ranges, whereby the relative position of the elements in three-dimensional space can be adjusted based at least in part upon the applied values. By rotating the elements, applying criteria, and changing the camera view of the elements, a user can quickly compare a large number of instances of context according to a number of different criteria, and can quickly locate items of interest from a large selection of items.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of displaying content using a computing device, comprising:

receiving a search query relating to an object;

determining a plurality of instances of content relating to the search query;

causing at least a portion of the plurality of instances of content to be displayed using a plurality of three-dimensional elements, as represented in a two-dimensional display, each of the plurality of three-dimensional elements including at least two regions for displaying a respective type of information of a plurality of types of information for a respective instance of content;

determining a first rotation of the computing device, with respect to a user, based at least in part upon a first input detected by at least one sensor of the computing device;

causing a first rotation of each of the plurality of displayed three-dimensional elements concurrently, a direction of the first rotation of each of the plurality of displayed three-dimensional elements corresponding to a direction of the first rotation of the computing device;

enabling a display of a common type of information of the plurality of types of information of each one of the plurality of three-dimensional elements for the respective instance of content concurrently;

in response to receiving a first filtering criterion, causing a portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements to appear closer to the user relative to a display element of the computing device, the common type of information being displayed on each of the plurality of three-dimensional elements for the respective instance of content; and

in response to receiving a second filtering criterion, the second filtering criterion identifying a range of values for a parameter corresponding to the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements, causing the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements to be arranged within the range of values, the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements being arrange based at least in part on a weighted combination of the first filtering criterion and the second filtering criterion.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to a second input from the user, causing a change in a point of view of the displayed plurality of three-dimensional elements, the change in the point of view enabling a relative position of at least a portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements in three-dimensional space to be presented by the two-dimensional display.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the plurality of instances of content relating to at least one specified criterion includes at least one of executing a search using the at least one specified criterion or browsing content according to the at least one specified criterion.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to a second input from the user, generating an enhanced view of at least one of the plurality of three-dimensional elements.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, further comprising:

in response to a third input from the user, enabling the user of the computing device to obtain specified content corresponding to at least one of the plurality of three-dimensional elements.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein enabling the user of the computing device to obtain specified content includes at least one of enabling the user to purchase an item corresponding to at least one instance of content or access additional information corresponding to the at least one instance of content.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of three-dimensional elements include blocks each having at least four faces, at least a portion of the at least four faces displaying-information of a particular type.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first input corresponds to relative motion between the user of the computing device and the computing device.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a third filtering criterion;

adjusting a position of the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements relative to a display element of the computing device, wherein a change in one of the first filtering criterion, the second filtering criterion, or the third filtering criterion a rendering of the position of the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements is adjusted accordingly.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a rank for each one of the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements based at least in part on the first filtering criterion, wherein a relative position in three-dimensional space of each one of the three-dimensional elements of the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements is based at least in part on the rank of a respective three-dimensional element.

26. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein arranging the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements further includes:

displaying the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements along at least one axis on the display element of the computing device, a separation along the at least one axis for each three-dimensional element of the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements being based at least in part on the second filtering criteria.

9. A computer-implemented method of displaying content using a computing device, comprising:

receiving a search query relating to an object;

determining a plurality of instances of content relating to the search query;

causing at least a portion of the plurality of instances of content to be displayed using a plurality of three-dimensional elements, as represented in a two-dimensional display, each of the plurality of three-dimensional elements including at least two regions for displaying a respective type of information of a plurality of types of information for a respective instance of content;

determining a first rotation of the computing device, with respect to a user, based at least in part upon a first input detected by at least one sensor of the computing device;

causing a first change in a point of view of each of the displayed plurality of three-dimensional elements concurrently, the first change in the point of view corresponding to the first rotation of the computing device;

enabling a display of a common type of information of the plurality of types of information of each of the plurality of three-dimensional elements for the respective instance of content concurrently;

in response to receiving a first filtering criterion, causing a portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements to appear closer to the user relative to a display element of the computing device, the common type of information being displayed on each of the plurality of three-dimensional elements for the respective instance of content; and

in response to receiving a second filtering criterion, the second filtering criterion identifying a range of values for a parameter corresponding to the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements, causing the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements to be arranged within the range of values, the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements being arrange based at least in part on a weighted combination of the first filtering criterion and the second filtering criterion.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving at least one filtering criterion for the plurality of instances of content; and

determining a relative position of at least a portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements in three-dimensional space based at least in part upon the at least one filtering criterion.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the at least one filtering criterion includes a range of values for a parameter corresponding to at least a portion of the plurality of instances of content, and

wherein the relative position of at least a portion of the plurality three-dimensional elements in three-dimensional space is indicative of a corresponding value in the range of values for at least a portion of the plurality of instances of content.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the first input corresponds to relative motion between the user of the computing device and the computing device.

13. A computer-implemented method of displaying content using a computing device, comprising:

under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

receiving a search query;

determining a set of instances of content corresponding to the search query;

determining at least two types of information for each of the set of instances of content;

providing the set of instances of content and the at least two types of information for each of the set of instances of content for display by the computing device, the computing device operable to display at least a portion of the set of instances of content as a plurality of three-dimensional elements, each of the plurality of three-dimensional elements comprising at least two faces for displaying at least one of the at least two types of information of a plurality of types of information for each of the set of instances of content;

determining a first rotation of the computing device, with respect to a user, based at least in part upon a first input detected by at least one sensor of the computing device;

causing a first change in an orientation of display of each of the plurality of three-dimensional elements corresponding to the first rotation of the computing device concurrently;

enabling a display of a common type of information of the plurality of types of information of each one of the plurality of three-dimensional elements for the respective instance of content concurrently;

in response to receiving a first filtering criterion, causing a portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements to appear closer to the user relative to a display element of the computing device, the common type of information being displayed on each of the plurality of three-dimensional elements for the respective instance of content; and

in response to receiving a second filtering criterion, the second filtering criterion identifying a range of values for a parameter corresponding to the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements, causing the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements to be arranged within the range of values, the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements being arrange based at least in part on a weighted combination of the first filtering criterion and the second filtering criterion.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein a relative position of at least a portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements in three-dimensional space is determined at least in part based upon the first filtering criterion.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the relative position of at least a portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements in the three-dimensional space is adjustable based at least in part upon at least one user-controllable filtering criterion.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein determining the set of instances of content corresponding to the search query includes at least one of executing a search using at least one content criterion or browsing content according to the at least one content criterion.

17. A computing device for displaying content:

a processor; and

a memory device including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

receive a search query;

determine a plurality of instances of content relating the search query;

cause at least a portion of the plurality of instances of content to be displayed using a plurality of three-dimensional elements, as represented in a two-dimensional display, each of the plurality of three-dimensional elements including at least two regions for displaying a respective type of information of a plurality of types of information for a respective instance of content;

in response to receiving a first filtering criterion, cause a portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements to appear closer to a user relative to a display element of the computing device and a common type of information being displaying on each of the plurality of three-dimensional elements for the respective instance of content; and

in response to receiving a second filtering criterion, the second filtering criterion identify a range of values for a parameter corresponding to the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements, causing the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements to be arranged within the range of values, the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements being arrange based at least in part on a weighted combination of the first filtering criterion and the second filtering criterion.

18. The computing device of claim 17, wherein

a relative position of at least a portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements in three-dimensional space is determined based at least in part upon at least one filtering criteria.

19. A system for displaying content using a computing device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory device including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

receiving a search query;

receive a first filtering criterion from the computing device;

determine a set of instances of content corresponding to the first filtering criterion;

determine at least two types of information for each of the set of instances of content;

provide the set of instances of content and the at least two types of information for each of the set of instances of content for display by the computing device, the computing device operable to display at least a portion of the set of instances of content as a plurality of three-dimensional elements, each three-dimensional element comprising at least two faces for displaying at least one of a plurality of types of information for each of the set of instances of content;

cause a portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements to appear closer to a user relative to a display element of the computing device, a common type of information being displayed on each of the plurality of three-dimensional elements for the respective instance of content; and

in response to receiving a second filtering criterion, the second filtering criterion identify a range of values for a parameter corresponding to the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements, causing the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements to be arranged within the range of values, the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements being arrange based at least in part on a weighted combination of the first filtering criterion and the second filtering criterion.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein a relative position of at least a portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements in three-dimensional space in adjustable based at least in part upon at least one user-controllable filtering criteria.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for displaying content, the instructions when executed by a processor causing the processor to:

receive a search query;

determine a plurality of instances of content relating to the search query;

cause at least a portion of the plurality of instances of content to each be displayed on a display element of a computing device using a plurality of three-dimensional elements, as represented in a two-dimensional display, each three-dimensional element including at least two regions for displaying a respective type of information for a respective instance of content;

in response to receiving a first filtering criterion, cause the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements to appear closer to a user relative to a display element of the computing device, wherein a common type of information is displayed on each of the plurality of three-dimensional elements for the respective instance of content; and

in response to receiving a second filtering criterion, the second filtering criterion identify a range of values for a parameter corresponding to the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements, causing the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements to be arranged within the range of values, the portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements being arrange based at least in part on a weighted combination of the first filtering criterion and the second filtering criterion.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein a relative position of at least a portion of the plurality of three-dimensional elements in three-dimensional space is determined based at least in part upon at least one filtering criteria.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to:

in response to a third input from the user, generate an enhanced view of at least one of the plurality of three-dimensional elements.