Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer network managing – Computer network monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
1997-07-22
2001-05-29
Maung, Zarni (Department: 2154)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer network managing
Computer network monitoring
C709S229000, C379S032010, C370S241000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06240450
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and/or process for remote access to data and visualisation thereof. It finds particular application in data monitoring.
2. Related Art
Data visualisation techniques are known and clearly useful. There are many scenarios in which a user may have complex and extensive data available to them. The ability to present large data sets in a graphical form which allows a user to gain more understanding of the original data has been the focus of the emerging subject of scientific visualisation for the past few years. In a typical visualisation application, data is represented in the form of a three dimensional graphical object on a computer display screen. The shape and colouring of the object are dictated by the data set from which it was derived. The user has the ability to move and turn the object on the screen and adjust the lighting angles to highlight features in the data set. The use of animation, where the form of the object varies in time according to changes in the base data, is also a valuable mechanism in communicating trends in the data set.
Visualisation is used for instance within the scientific and academic communities to examine the results of simulations and experiments. The data is generally stored locally to the computer on which the visualisation is to be performed and each set of data is approached with the user writing software to produce a different visualisation. Thus visualisation is a mechanism of data access used by technical users who understand the nature of, and access methods for, their data. It has now been realised, in making the present invention, that it is possible and advantageous to find a way to give remote access to data, together with visualisation capability, to non-technical users.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, there is provided a remote access data visualisation system comprising:
i) a communications network;
ii) access means for use in accessing a database;
iii) means for receiving a user request in relation to visualisation of data stored in the database; and
iv) at least one data visualisation software tool for visualising data from the database, the tool being stored, when not in use by a user, so as to be downloadable to a user location, wherein the system is adapted to respond to a received user request in relation to data visualisation by downloading:
a) the data visualisation software tool; and
b) location information for data for use by the tool in visualisation, to the user location.
The user location can be remote with respect to either or both of the database and the storage location for the software tool.
It will be understood that the network may in practice comprise more than one type of network. For instance, the network may in practice be provided by a local area network connected to a public switched telecommunications network and/or to the Internet.
Preferably, the system further comprises means for loading and updating data in the database in a form which can be queried by the data visualisation software tool when downloaded to the user location. This allows a system operator also to provide the relevant data for the user to visualise.
By providing a suitable data visualisation means, such a system can enable a non-technical user, at a remote location with respect to a database, to access a complex data set and to control the manner of presentation so that the data is presented in a graphic and understandable way. This brings data visualisation techniques to a far greater range of users. For instance, data visualisation could, according to embodiments of the present invention, provide significant benefits to commercial fields, particularly the financial and telecommunications industries, where large quantities of data are routinely collected on computerised monitoring systems. Allowing a wider range of people within an organisation, with widely differing technical capabilities, to examine this data could for instance provide a valuable insight into the effectiveness of a particular operation. Alternatively, an organisation might want to provide better information to their customers.
A problem solved by embodiments of the present invention is moving the field of data access and visualisation from the province of the technical expert situated close to the data source to the area of access by a geographically diverse set of users with varying levels of experience and different types of equipment.
In a particularly useful and advantageous embodiment, the data to be accessed may comprise traffic data for a communications network. A user who has an interest in traffic on that network may then be able to download and visualise the data in an extremely useful way. For instance, if the user is a service or information provider, it would be possible for the user to get extremely early feedback on the response to a new or modified service, or to an advertising campaign, in a way which has not previously been available. The data visualisation software tool will of course in these cases generally be a tool for visualising communications traffic and may provide for instance a bar chart format and/or geographical indicators.
Preferably, the means for receiving a user request comprises authentification means for authenticating a received request as being made by an authorised user. This means that the database could contain confidential information.
As mentioned above, the user request may carry an identifier for data to be selected from the database, in which case the authentication means may authenticate the request specifically in relation to the data to be selected. A system of this type would have particular relevance where the data comprises communications traffic statistics in a network and the identifier may comprise one or more telephone numbers in which the user may have an interest. For instance, this may be because the user is a service provider, using said one or more telephone numbers in provision of the service. Preferably, the system then further comprises means to read the identifier and to download, together or in association with the data visualisation software tool, one or more addresses for location of the data to be selected.
Effectively, it becomes possible to provide a practicable system of remote access data visualisation. The system of providing a data access method to a remote computer where the data presentation and access software are retrieved by the user automatically at the time of data access is a new technique in data distribution. If the data relates to traffic statistics in a communications network, then this is a particularly useful system for the service provider who can monitor almost in real time the success or otherwise of a particular communications service.
Another use of an embodiment of the invention might be to access data relating to financial transactions. In this case, an identifier for relevant data might comprise one or more account numbers, or a banking office address.
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Fauth Marco J.
Sharples Peter A.
British Telecommunications public limited company
Caldwell Andrew
Maung Zarni
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
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