Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1997-07-07
2003-03-25
Corrielus, Jean M. (Department: 2172)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06539387
ABSTRACT:
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office public patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to data structures for large hierarchical multimedia databases. More particularly, the present invention relates to a structured focused hypertext data structure in which hypertext nodes store identifying information about source and target documents or pages so that the relative positions in the hierarchy of the source and target documents as well as other information about the documents may be determined and utilized by both the user and a quality control computer program.
Hypertext is a well known concept and tool by which one document is linked to one or more other documents. Users access a desired, target document from a currently displayed, source document by selecting a portion of text which has some relationship to the target document and which has been visually distinguished as hypertext such as with the use of underlining or bolding. The link between documents is established in advance by the use of an anchor inserted before or near the hyperlinked text in the source document which contains the address of the target document. Hypertext is widely used in many commercially available products, including in Windows®-based software products and help files available from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., and in the World Wide Web accessible through the Internet which utilizes Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML.
The manner in which hypertext is used in these and many other currently available software products is represented generally in the diagram
10
shown in FIG.
1
. Each circle
12
in this diagram represents a document or page of information, commonly referred to as a “node,” which contains one or more hypertext links to other pages, as shown by the lines
14
connecting the nodes. The arrows in the diagram
10
represent hypertext links to additional nodes not shown in the diagram. The diagram
10
in
FIG. 1
loosely takes the form of a web, with hypertext links extending from nodes in an unorganized and unstructured manner.
Hypertext is advantageous because it is easy to use and mirrors the associative thought processes of users. However, currently available hypertext systems contain several problems which have prevented hypertext from becoming the primary search tool for many developers of large multimedia databases. One problem with existing hypertext systems is that users seeking a specific bit of information contained in one node often need to jump from node to node in an essentially undirected and unfocused manner until reaching the node containing the desired information. Users have little assurance that they are getting closer to the desired information as more jumps are made, and can easily get sidetracked into nodes located far from the desired node.
Furthermore, hypertext alone provides little guidance as to what type of the information users will receive after jumping to another document. For example, users may wish to see a photograph, graphical image, or motion video rather than text, but have no way of knowing based on the presence of a hypertext link whether the target document contains such information. As a result they are often required to jump to the other document just to discover whether it contains useful information of a desired type, and to return to the source document afterwards to continue searching for a more appropriate hypertext connection. To convey information to users regarding the type of information contained in a target document, the author of the source document needs to insert additional text (such as “click here to see picture”) or a graphical image such as an clickable icon indicating the type of information contained in the target document. This provides additional work and inconvenience for the author, and the additional text or graphical image will become inaccurate if the information contained in the target document is changed.
Another well-known problem with the hypertext system represented by the diagram
10
of
FIG. 1
is the tendency for users to feel lost after several hypertext jumps. As a result, users are often required to backtrack through previously visited nodes or to refer to lists of previously visited sites to find their way.
Clearly, these problems with current hypertext systems grow exponentially with the number of hypertext links used. The number of hypertext links appearing in any given document must therefore be limited in existing systems, and these simple hypertext systems usually contain an average of about two-three links per page. Thus, in order to effectively browse through a large number of separate pages of information (by eliminating hypertext link choices), for example, 2000 pages, a user would need to make about seven hypertext jumps (3
7
=2187), whereas if each page contained
10
hypertext links, a user would only need to make about three or four jumps. The necessary limitation on the number of hypertext link in existing hypertext systems because of the exponential growth of the problems discussed above thus further limits the capability of hypertext to serve as a primary database search tool.
These problems are particularly prevalent in the design of large multimedia databases containing a large volume of information (e.g., 2,000-10,000 pages) of a technical nature, such as medical information, which is constantly changing and needs to be updated on a regular basis. Doctors must be able to quickly access key, up-to-date medical and patient information while visiting with a patient, and must keep abreast with a vast volume of current medical literature. The best way in which to provide access to this information is in the form in which doctors think, i.e., by associative thinking. However, because of the problems described above, existing hypertext systems are inadequate to serve as a comprehensive search mechanism for a large medical multimedia database.
An additional problem faces designers of a large medical database for use by doctors. Medical knowledge may be broken into types or categories (e.g., diseases, tests, and procedures) and each of these types may be further broken down into subtypes. These types and subtypes may be useful in designing a hierarchical database. However, certain medical knowledge may be accurately categorized in many ways. For example, celiac disease may be categorized as both a digestive disorder and an immunodeficient disorder. Furthermore, doctors may otherwise disagree on how to categorize many parts of medical knowledge. Thus, the usefulness of such categorizations in a hierarchical database is severely limited. Applicant(s) are unaware of any existing medical or other type of large database which uses categorizations but accounts for possible differences in categorization.
The present invention substantially solves these problems and provides the heretofore missing data structure for a large multimedia database which provides for hypertext to be used in a structured, focused manner so that users can quickly find specific bits of information using a natural associative thinking process.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to solve the problems described above associated with existing hypertext systems.
It is another object of the present invention to facilitate search and navigation through a large multimedia database.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of informing users of a large database organized in a hierarchical fashion of the relative position in the hierarchy of a page or document targeted by a hypertext link as compared to a currently displayed source document or page.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of informing users of a multim
Kovalsky Nachum
Margulyan Rita
Olkha Lev
Oren Avraham
LandOfFree
Structured focused hypertext data structure does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Structured focused hypertext data structure, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Structured focused hypertext data structure will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3024010