Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-30
2002-08-20
Cabeca, John (Department: 2173)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C345S215000, C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06437812
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a graphical user interface (GUI) and in particular, but not limited to a GUI for a fraud management system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A GUI provides a means by which a user can control an apparatus such as a computer system. The GUI is typically also the means by which information about or from the apparatus is presented to the user.
A particular problem for GUIs involves providing an interface which can present large amounts of information to a user in such a way that the user can quickly and easily obtain the required information. The GUI should be easy to learn and flexible in order that a user may “tailor” displays to meet particular requirements. These problems occur particularly where the information to be presented is of several types which can be organised into a hierarchical structure.
The GUIs provided as part of Microsoft Outlook™ and Microsoft Windows Explorer™ have attempted to address these problems by presenting displays which illustrate the hierarchical structure of stored information. For example, in Microsoft Windows Explorer a display of icons is presented in a “tree” structure form where the leaves of the tree represent individual documents and branches of the tree represent folders for containing documents. However, when a user selects an icon representing a branch of the tree, information about each leaf of the tree stemming from that branch is not necessarily presented. In order for the user to view information about all documents at that level and below in the hierarchy several key presses or other user actions are required. This is time consuming and repetitive for the user and can lead to novice users being unable to find the information that they require. A similar problem is encountered with Microsoft Outlook.
Fraud management systems are typically used to analyse data about events such as credit card transactions or telephone calls, in order to detect potentially fraudulent events. These potentially fraudulent events are identified for example using rule based methods, neural networks, or other suitable techniques. Often a combination of different techniques are used and the results compared. This leads to the situation where a given event may be detected as potentially fraudulent using several different methods within a fraud management system and several different “alarms” or “alerts” are raised to notify an operator of the fraud management system. Several tens of different methods may be used to identify potentially fraudulent events especially for telecoms fraud. For example, particular situations may be identified as potentially fraudulent such as if the total cost of calls rapidly increases on a particular customer account, or if simultaneous calls occur from the same customer account (this is not possible under normal circumstances). This means that the number of types of “alarms” or “alerts” is great. As well as this the number of instances of alarms can be large especially because telecoms fraud such as mobile telephone fraud is a growing problem.
The operator of a fraud management system is thus provided with many “alarms” as outputs from the system and needs to analyse these and decide what action to take. For example, one or more “alarmed” events such as telephone calls may be related in that they are all calls to the same destinations, or are all calls to one another. Once an account that is being used fraudulently has been identified the owner, who may well be aware of this, is typically contacted and provided with a new account. Once a fraudulent account has been identified action needs to be taken quickly in order to minimise any losses incurred.
It is therefore important for a GUI to be provided to a fraud management system which is simple and easy to use and yet which is able to provide a user with all the functionality he requires. Before now, such GUIs for fraud management systems have not been able to cope well with the large number of potential “alarms” and the large number of types of alarms. Typically a user has had to move or change between different windows or displays within a GUI in order to seek all the information he requires. This is time consuming and complex making such GUIs difficult to learn especially for novices in the field of fraud management systems. Another problem with known GUIs for fraud management is that they are inflexible and cannot easily be used by an operator to provide a display tailored for a particular task or situation. Also, different types of alarm have been treated differently and this has meant that a user has had to make several “clicks” or selections in order to reach the information required.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide an improved GUI which overcomes or at least mitigates one or more of the problems noted above.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention there is provided a method of controlling a display for displaying hierarchically structured information, the hierarchy having at least two levels, said method comprising the steps of:
(i) displaying a representation of at least part of the hierarchy;
(ii) receiving user input to make a selection of part of the hierarchy, at a given one of the levels in the hierarchy; and
(iii) displaying information located within the selected part of the hierarchy including information located two or more levels below the level of the selection, in response to the selection.
A corresponding computer program stored on a computer readable medium is provided, said computer program being for controlling a display for displaying hierarchically structured information, the hierarchy having at least two levels, said computer program being arranged to control said display such that:
(i) a representation of at least part of the hierarchy is displayed;
(ii) a user input is received, to make a selection of part of the hierarchy, at a given one of the levels in the hierarchy; and
(iii) information is displayed within the selected part of the hierarchy, including information located two or more levels below the level of the selection, in response to the selection.
A corresponding graphical user interface is provided for controlling a computer system, said graphical user interface comprising:
(i) a display screen;
(ii) a user input means; and
(iii) a processor arranged to display hierarchically structured information from the computer system on the display screen, the hierarchy having at least two levels and said processor being arranged to control the display of information on the display screen by:
(i) displaying a representation of at least part of the hierarchy;
(ii) receiving a user input to make a selection of part of the hierarchy, at a given one of the levels in the hierarchy; and
(iii) displaying information located within the selected part of the hierarchy, including information located two or more levels below the level of the selection, in response to the selection.
This provides the advantage that an improved GUI is created. The user is able to quickly and easily select particular parts of hierarchically structured information without needing to make several actions or selections. Use of a hierarchical representation enables the user to gain an overall view of the structure of the items and to select required information from a single display screen. For a given level in the hierarchy all information located two or more levels below that level is presented as a result of a single user action. The resulting GUI is simple to use and easy to learn.
The present invention also provides a fraud management system comprising:
(i) a display screen;
(ii) user input means;
(iii) a processor arranged to display hierarchically structured information from the fraud management system on the display screen, said information comprising a plurality of alarms each alarm being an indicator of potential fraud, said hierarchy having at least two levels, said processor being arranged to control the display of information on the display sc
Bushell Alexander
Coward Jonathan
Giles David Peter
Hobson Philip W
Jolliffe Graham John
Cabeca John
Cerebrus Solutions Limited
Foley & Hoag LLP
Oliver Kevin A.
Vu Kieu D.
LandOfFree
Graphical user interface and method for displaying... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Graphical user interface and method for displaying..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Graphical user interface and method for displaying... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2894219