Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-13
2001-09-11
Breene, John (Department: 2177)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C345S215000, C345S215000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06288718
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the display of information on small display screens, and in particular to a method and apparatus for scrolling a zoom window through a list of items on a small screen, and at the same time displaying within the zoom window a pertinent portion of the record from a structured database.
2. Description of Related Art
A structured information database is usually represented by a long list of ordered data or records. More often, it is represented by a list of indexes, pointers, indicators, items or entries, each indexing one of the records. In order to locate a record identified by an index from the database, a string of characters representing a portion or full of the index must be supplied. A lookup process based on the matching scheme is then followed to retrieve all records identified by the string of characters. Furthermore, a scrolling process can be applied at any time to navigate through a list of indexes. It provides user a speed access to a record when its index is displayed on the screen.
As alternatively used herein, an index, a pointer, an indicator, an item or an entry means an indexing representation of a record containing collective information FIG
1
A.
Illustrates a display screen
100
with a list of items
102
being displayed. Each of items corresponds to a record. In order to locate a record by a desired index from the database, a cursor
104
must be scrolled to the desired item or index.
FIG. 1B
shows an exemplary screen in which the desired index is “Bakers, Cash & . . . ”
108
being selected by cursor
104
. A user has to engage in a mode for displaying the full record of the selected index in order to obtain pertinent information.
FIG. 1C
shows the full record
110
of the selected index after the user activities a predefined key. The display screen allows the user to view and seek the desired information through all portions of record. After viewing the record, user has to disengage the current display mode and to return back to the previous scrolling display screen
FIG. 1B
to resume the scrolling process.
This method, commonly seen in some devices, is attempted to enable user to adapt to the information being structured and to review the information in a way that a scrolling process works by navigating through a list of indexes and selectively viewing individual record, which may contain desired information. Obviously, when navigating or scrolling, a user is not able to view the content of record unless temporarily suspending the scrolling process and then engaging in a mode for full record display. The full record display screen contains all portions of information in a record. Quite often only a small portion of the record is pertinent to the user, for example a phone number in an address record. Further, when the user frequently “enters” the full record display screen or “returns” to the scrolling screen, the screen display is changed or refreshed each time the display mode changes, which causes certain degrees of visual disturbance to the screen viewer (user).
For devices, such as cellular phones or two-way pagers, that are equipped with a small screen, the above scrolling method might be practical but neither convenient nor efficient. There is therefore a great need for a generic solution, for devices with small screens, to facilitate a user to navigate through a list of items and to view only a desired portion of a record without causing the visual disturbance to the user.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above described problems and needs and has particular applications to portable devices with a small screen and a limited input interface. The portable devices, that may include, but not be limited to, mobile computing devices, cellular phones, palm-sized computer devices, personal digital assistant devices and Internet-capable appliance remote controllers, allow users to interact with the screen and input interface to obtain pertinent information.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a user supplies a few character-based queries to retrieve and display a record from a structured database. For every alphabetical character the user enters from a numerical keypad, a progressively reduced list of items that start with the entered characters is displayed. When a desired index identifying the record is among those items being displayed, the user may cease the character entry and scroll a zoom window upon the desired index to explore the record. According to another aspect of the present invention, the zoom window maintains a display of an index and at least one field of a record. Consequently, the user can access and display pertinent information of a certain record from a database quickly and efficiently with minimum keystrokes.
According to one embodiment, the present invention is a method for displaying a record from a structured database on a screen, the record including at least one field and indexed by a desired index comprising a string of characters, the method comprising:
displaying on the screen a portion of items from the structured database;
receiving a first symbol if the desired index is not among the items being displayed in the screen; the first symbol representing a first group of characters one of which is a first character in the string of characters of the desired index; and indicating the desired index with a cursor when the desired index is among the items being displayed in the screen and the cursor is scrolled to the desired index.
In one preferred embodiment, the cursor is a zoom window that surrounds the desired index. The zoom window may further display one field of information of the record to facilitate the display of a piece of pertinent information in the record.
According to another embodiment, the present invention is an apparatus for displaying a desired record from a structured database on a screen, the record including at least one field and indexed by a predefined index comprising a string of characters, the device comprising:
a screen driver commanding the screen;
an input interface;
a memory for storing code for an application module;
a processor coupled to the memory, the input interface and the screen driver, the processor executing the code in the memory to cause the application module to drive the screen driver to display on the screen a portion of items from the structured database;
position a zoom window on one of the items being displayed on the screen; wherein the zoom window displays the one of the items along with a field of a record indexed by the one of indexes; and
move the zoom window to the desired index when a navigation key is being activated and the desired index is among the items being displayed in the screen; wherein the zoom window displays the desired index and the at least one field of the desired record.
Accordingly, one of the objects in the present invention is to provide a generic solution to displaying a record on a small screen from a structured database with minimum keystrokes on a limited input interface.
Other objects, together with the foregoing are attained in the exercise of the invention in the following description and resulting in the embodiment illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
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Laursen Andrew L.
Payne Craig
Breene John
Minsk Alan D.
Openwave Systems Inc.
Rayyan Susan
Zheng Joe
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