Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
1998-03-31
2001-01-30
Bayerl, Raymond J. (Department: 2773)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C345S215000, C345S960000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06181340
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED COPENDING PATENT APPLICATIONS
The following patent applications which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention cover subject matter related to the subject matter of the present invention: “Data Processor Controlled Display System With a Plurality of Selectable Basic Function Interfaces for the Control of Varying Types of Customer Requirements and With Additional Customized Functions”, Attorney Docket No. AM9-97-153; “Data Processor Controlled Display System With a Plurality of Switchable Customized Basic Function Interfaces for the Control of Varying Types of Operations”, Attorney Docket No. AM9-97-155; “Data Processor Controlled Display Interface With Tree Hierarchy of Elements View Expandable into Multiple Detailed Views”, Attorney Docket No. AM9-97-157; “Data Processor Controlled Interface with Multiple Tree of Elements Views Expandable into Individual Detail Views”, Attorney Docket No. AM9-97-158; “Data Processor Controlled Display With a Tree of Items With Modification of Child Item Properties Designated at Parent Level Without Modification of Parent Item Properties”, Attorney Docket No. AM9-97-159; and “Data Processor Controlled Display System With a Tree Hierarchy of Elements View Having Virtual Nodes”, Attorney Docket No. AM9-97-160; all are assigned to International Business Machines Corporation by Claudia Alimpich et al. and all are filed concurrently herewith.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to interactive computer controlled display systems for controlling operations and particularly to user friendly display interfaces for the control of such operations when operators of limited computer skills are controlling repetitive operations.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Computer application programs are used in all aspects of business, industry and academic endeavors. There is a large and diverse segment of workers and consumers that must interface with these applications. Conventionally the developer of an application program must target a skill level of a group of potential users so as to create the optimum “ease of use” interface. Of necessity there has to be some trade-off between increased function versus such ease of use, i.e. the greater the operator's control, the more complex the interface. Usually the program developer has to anticipate the level of this trade-off.
Nowhere does the program developer's choices in designing interfaces have a greater impact than in the control of production operations. This vast area includes the printing trades, the production of parts, tools and dies, integrated circuit manufacturing and processing and chemical industry production as just a few examples. Because such production involves repetitive functions continuously performed over relatively long periods of time, the computerization of such operations takes advantage of the strengths of the computer. With the advance of computer control in production, the operator skill levels required for many operations has been reduced, and in areas where high production skills are still required, the productivity of skilled workers has been greatly increased.
However, with this ever increasing use of computer functions in production operations comes an attendant downside which must be dealt with. The display interfaces through which the operators must control the production could become more and more complex with up to hundreds of functional options and dozens of system levels. The result is the productive times and more limited skills of the lower skilled operators may be drained in computer functions, and the creative energies of the workers skilled in the production technologies exhausted in such computer functions with the result that their technical skills are diminished.
Some production operations have found a solution to this problem through the use of various software development and service organizations to design specific purpose software programs with specific display interfaces tailored to the specific production needs and operator skills. This approach may be viable in production operations where the runs are long term and of the same type with few changes. However, it is likely to be too expensive to production organizations such as large scale printing operations which have to deal with a variety of modified operations from job to job.
Copending application, “Data Processor Controlled Display System With a Plurality of Selectable Basic Function Interfaces for the Control of Varying Types of Customer Requirements and With Additional Customized Functions”, Claudia Alimpich et al. (Attorney Docket No. AM9-97-153), assigned to the same assignee as the present invention and filed on the same day as the present invention offers a solution to the above problems by providing production operations control program which may be distributed “off-the-shelf” and provides the user with a plurality of basic ease-of-use interfaces each respectfully directed to a different type of production operation together with the means to readily customize the selected interface through the addition of selected functions.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention offers the further implementation of providing universal operations control programs which may be sold “off-the-shelf”. The programs provide the operator at the controlling interactive display terminal or the production operations supervisor with the capability of selecting from among the dozens of properties involved in the control of the operations. Those properties which are to be controlled as variables during the current production operations and those properties which are to be preset to fixed constant values during the control of the current operations or during the control of particular jobs being currently performed in the overall operations. Of course, the properties chosen to be controllable and those chosen to remain fixed during the current operation or job may subsequently be changed by the operator for subsequent operations or jobs.
With this capability, the production control properties may preset to constant values or be permitted to remain controllable variables dependent upon the needs of a production run or of the individual jobs in that run. In other words, the present invention makes possible the following trade-off: the greater the number of control properties permitted to remain controllable variables, the more precise will be the control of the operation. However, too many variables will present a much more complex display interface for control of the operations which would be likely to confuse and impede operators of lower skill levels. Thus, with lower skill level operators, only an essential few of the control properties would be permitted to be controllable variables while most of the control properties would be fixed at constant or default levels. Some precision and fine tuning of properties would be conceded in return for an interface which would be greatly simplified for the lower skilled operator.
The present invention relates to a data processor controlled display system for the interactive control of operations comprising means for displaying a group of interactively controllable properties of said operations together with means for selecting a plurality of said controllable properties for interactive operator control of variable property values during said operations. The nonselected properties are maintained at constant values during said production operations. The user is then provided with a simple display interface for controlling the production operations which shows the user controllable representations of each of said selected plurality of controllable properties, while the properties which are to remain constant are absent from the display interface. The initial selection of the properties which are to remain controllable is made by displaying representations of the group of interactively controllable properties in a scrollable graphical interface, and interactively selecting the properties which are to remain controllable from the re
Alimpich Claudia
Boldt Gerald Donald
Doescher Calvin Larry
Goddard Joan Stagaman
Wittig James Philip John
Bayerl Raymond J.
International Business Machines - Corporation
Konrad Raynes & Victor LLP
Kraft Julius B.
Thai Cuong T.
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