Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-14
2001-02-13
Bayerl, Raymond J. (Department: 2773)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C345S215000, C345S215000, C345S215000, C345S960000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06188405
ABSTRACT:
§ 1. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
§ 1.1 Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a user interface to objects, such as informational objects for example, which are stored on, or accessed via, a machine such as a computer for example. The present invention exploits the spatial memory of people.
§ 1.2 Related Art
A brief history of user interfaces is provided below. First, known user interfaces are introduced in § 1.2.1. Then, user interfaces which facilitate information access, rather than information processing, are introduced in § 1.2.2. Finally, needs of users which have not yet been met by user interfaces are listed in § 1.2.3.
§ 1.2.1 KNOWN USER INTERFACES
The way in which people interact with computing machines has evolved over the last 50 or so years. Initially, these machines were typically used as information processors, and in particular, for performing mathematical operations on numbers. People interacted with such early computing machines by punching and ordering cards to effect a sequence of commands. In later computing machines, also typically used to perform mathematical operations on numbers, people interacted with such computing machines by setting switches and viewing light emitting diodes to enter commands. With the advent of the desktop personal computer, people-machine interaction evolved from the use a keyboard to enter lines of commands, discussed in § 1.2.1.1 below, to the use of a keyboard and mouse to manipulate icon metaphors of the real world, discussed in § 1.2.1.2 below.
§ 1.2.1.1 COMMAND LINES
Early personal computers were also used to perform mathematical operations, from engineering applications to accounting applications (e.g., spreadsheets). In addition, such early personal computers were used to enter, store, and manipulate information, such as with word processing applications for example, and to effectively access stored information, such as with relational database applications for example. People typically interacted with such computers by entering commands, in accordance with fairly rigid syntactical rules, or by entering data via a keyboard and viewing results via a video monitor. Unfortunately, since the syntactical rules for interacting with a personal computer were typically not intuitive, people would have to invest a fairly substantial amount of time to master effective interaction with the computer. Until they mastered the syntactical rules, people would often become frustrated when using computers. Casual users would often conclude that learning to interact with computers would not be worth their time. Thus, computer use was usually limited to professionals (e.g., accountants, engineers, and scientists) who needed the computational power of personal computers, and to hobbyists.
§ 1.2.1.2 GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACES
The advent of graphical user interfaces (or “GUIs”) provided a more intuitive way for people to interact with computers. The casual user no longer needed to learn syntactical rules and enter sequences of commands. As personal computers penetrated business to an ever greater degree, probably due to popular and time saving word processing and spreadsheet applications, operating systems began to employ user interfaces which used a office metaphor which included documents, folders, filing cabinets, trash cans, telephone directories, etc. These so-called desktop GUIs have served their users well over the past decade or so. However, in addition to using computers for data entry, storage, and manipulation, people are using computers for access to information to an ever increasing degree. This recent trend is discussed in § 1.2.2 below.
§ 1.2.2 MIGRATION FROM INFORMATION PROCESSING AND DESKTOP METAPHOR TO INFORMATION ACCESS
In recent decades, and in the past five (5) to ten (10) years in particular, computers have become interconnected by networks by an ever increasing extent; initially, via local area networks (or “LANs”), and more recently via LANs, private wide area networks (or “WANs”) and the Internet. The proliferation of networks, in conjunction with the increased availability of inexpensive data storage means, has afforded computer users unprecedented access to a wealth of content. Such content may be presented to a user (or “rendered”) in the form of text, images, audio, video, etc.
The Internet is one means of inter-networking local area networks and individual computers. The popularity of the Internet has exploded in recent years. Many feel that this explosive growth was fueled by the ability to link (e.g., via Hyper-text links) resources (e.g., World Wide Web pages) so that users could seamlessly transition from various resources, even when such resources were stored at geographically remote resource servers. More specifically, the Hyper-text markup language (or “HTML”) permits documents to include hyper-text links. These hyper-text links, which are typically rendered in a text file as text in a different font or color, include network address information to related resources. More specifically, the hyper-text link has an associated uniform resource locator (or “URL”) which is an Internet address at which the linked resource is located. When a user activates a hyper-text link, for example by clicking a mouse when a displayed cursor coincides with the text associated with the hyper-text link, the related resource is accessed, downloaded, and rendered to the user. The related resource may be accessed by the same resource server that provided the previously rendered resource, or may be accessed by a geographically remote resource server. Such transiting from resource to resource, by activating hyper-text links for example, is commonly referred to as “surfing”.
Although people continue to use computers to enter information, manipulate information, and store information, in view of the foregoing developments people are using computers to access information to an ever increasing extent. In a departure from the past, the information people want to access is often not created by them (which would typically reside on the person's desktop computer), or even by a company or group to which that person belongs (which would typically reside on a storage server, accessible via a local area network). Rather, given the world wide breadth of the Internet, the information people want to access is usually created by unrelated third parties (or content providers). Unfortunately, GUIs using a desktop metaphor are not particularly well suited for such information access.
New GUIs should therefore help people find information that they want, or that they might want. Unfortunately, the very vastness of available data can overwhelm a user; desired data can become difficult to find and search heuristics employed to locate desired data often return unwanted data (also referred to as “noise”).
Various concepts have been employed to help users locate desired data. In the context of the Internet for example, some services have organized content based on a hierarchy of categories. A user may then navigate through a series of hierarchical menus to find content that may be of interest to them. An example of such a service is the YAHOO™ World Wide Web site on the Internet. Unfortunately, content, in the form of Internet “web sites” for example, must be organized by the service and users must navigate through a predetermined hierarchy of menus. If a user mistakenly believes that a category will be of interest or include what they were looking for, but the category turns out to be irrelevant, the user must backtrack through one or more hierarchical levels of categories.
Again in the context of the Internet for example, some services provide “search engines” which search databased content or “web sites” pursuant to a user query. In response to a user's query, a rank ordered list, which includes brief descriptions of the uncovered content, as well as a hypertext links (text, having associated Internet address information, which, when activated, commands a computer to retrieve content from the associated Internet address) to the uncov
Czerwinski Mary
Dumais Susan T.
Dziadosz Susan E.
Robbins Daniel C.
Robertson George G.
Bayerl Raymond J.
Microsoft Corporation
Pokotylo John C.
Straub & Pokotylo
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