Patent Application
20120174038
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to providing information content. More particularly, the present invention relates to computer mediated navigation and selection to of information content.
2. Background Art
The famous sailor's lament “water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink” is equally apropos of the sea of information continuously competing for a computer user's attention as a result of advances made possible by modern communication technology. Much as the historical seafarer was tormented by the proximity of so much water contrasted with the rationing of his very limited supply of its drinkable variety, today's computer user may find him or herself frustrated in the attempt to identify and obtain personally timely and interesting items of information, due to the ocean of information content with which they are faced. For both the metaphorical mariner and the modern content seeking computer user, the problem is not the absence of a resource, but rather the need to distill that which is desirable and needed from that which may be plentiful, but embodies little or no desirability to the user.
Extracting information that is personally desirable from the vastly greater body of information that is not, can, however, be a demanding undertaking, and may sometimes seem overwhelming. The active efforts required in order to differentiate among alternative items of information to distinguish value from superficiality, and timeliness from obsolescence, may be mentally taxing, as well as wasteful of one of our least abundant resources, time itself. In short, the potential wealth of information continuously available to us is far less useful than it could be, due to its being rendered unrecognizable by its own abundance.
A simple and reflexive reaction to the problems associated with information overabundance may be to disengage from its sources and turn away from the demands and confusion they create. While perhaps effective in avoiding the personal stresses created by having to actively contend with available information, that solution deprives the user of the potential benefits available from a selective harvesting of the wealth of available information.
A more balanced conventional approach to solving the problems of information overload utilizes computer based information management tools to sort and summarize available items of information, by subject matter, for example. This approach allows the user to more rapidly analyze an information item and evaluate the likelihood that it may be relevant or desirable based on the user's personal interests. A significant disadvantage of this widely implemented conventional solution, however, is that it requires the user to engage individual items in a deductive analytical process, typically by requiring the user to read and absorb a digest or synopsis of the information content, and thus continues to impose significant burdens on user time and cognitive resources.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by providing a solution that allows a user to navigate amid and select desired content in a less analytical way, thereby enabling a more intuitive recognition of content having desirability to the user.
There are provided systems and methods enabling navigation and selection of content using an interactive virtual sphere, substantially as shown in and/or described in connection with at least one of the figures, as set forth more completely in the claims.
The features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art after reviewing the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, wherein:
The present application is directed to a system and method enabling navigation and selection of content using an interactive virtual sphere. The following description contains specific information pertaining to the implementation of the present invention. One skilled in the art will recognize that the present invention may be implemented in a manner different from that specifically discussed in the present application. Moreover, some of the specific details of the invention are not discussed in order not to obscure the invention. The specific details not described in the present application are within the knowledge of a person of ordinary skill in the art. The drawings in the present application and their accompanying detailed description are directed to merely exemplary embodiments of the invention. To maintain brevity, other embodiments of the invention, which use the principles of the present invention, are not specifically described in the present application and are not specifically illustrated by the present drawings. It should be borne in mind that, unless noted otherwise, like or corresponding elements among the figures may be indicated by like or corresponding reference numerals.
According to the embodiment of
Content navigation module 116 may be configured to provide user interface 140, to extract another plurality of content units from among content units 115a-115d on content database 112, for display to user 138, and to enable user 138 to interact with virtual sphere 142 in a number of interesting and entertaining ways. Spherical graphics rendering module 118 may be configured to render visual representations corresponding to the content units extracted from among content units 115a-115d on the surface of virtual sphere 142, thereby enabling navigation and selection of the content corresponding to the rendered visual representations by user 138, through interaction with virtual sphere 142. Virtual sphere 142 may comprise a representation of a celestial body, in which case the surface of the virtual sphere corresponds to the surface of that celestial body. For example, in one embodiment, virtual sphere 142 may comprise a globe of planet Earth, with the surface of virtual sphere 142 corresponding to the surface of the Earth.
In some embodiments, content navigation module 116 may be configured to enable selective extraction of content units from among content units 115a-115d for display as corresponding visual images on virtual sphere 142 according to filtering criteria, which may be predetermined, or which may be supplied or selected by user 138, for example. For instance, content units may be automatically selected and extracted from among content units 115a-115d by content navigation module 116 according to how recently a particular content unit was created. Alternatively, or in addition, content units may be automatically selected and extracted from content database 112 by content navigation module 116 according to how recently, or how often, a particular content unit has been updated.
Moreover, in some embodiments, content units may be selectively filtered and extracted from content database 112 by content navigation module 116 according to an input received from user 138 by user interface 140. Such an input may indicate a selection by user 138 of one or more predetermined content categories, such as a selection from a pull-down menu enabling user 138 to select among units of information content categorized as information content related to world news, U.S. news, entertainment news, health news, sports, or weather, for example. Alternatively, such an input may comprise data entered into a search field by user 138. As yet another alternative, in one embodiment, user 138 may initiate a random extraction of content units for display on virtual sphere 142 by providing an input to user interface 140 selecting that operation, or simply by moving client device 130 in a specified manner, such as by shaking or agitating client device 130, for example.
In addition, in one embodiment, user 138 may be empowered to cause virtual sphere 142 to rotate or spin by providing a specified input to user interface 140. It is noted that although client device 130 is represented as a touch screen tablet type device in
As shown in
Turning now to
In the present embodiment, content navigation module 216b and spherical graphics rendering module 218b are located in client memory 236, having been received from content server 210 via communication link 228. In the present embodiment, communication link 228 represents download of content navigation module 216a and spherical graphics rendering module 218a over a packet network, for example. In another embodiment, communication link 228 may represent transfer of content navigation module 216a and spherical graphics rendering module 218a from a CD-ROM or other portable computer-readable storage medium. Once transferred, content navigation module 216b and spherical graphics rendering module 218b may be stored in client memory 236 and run locally on client device 230. It is noted that communication link 228 is shown as a two-way communication, to represent transfer of data corresponding to user inputs to a user interface presented on client device 230 to content server 210.
Controller 232 may be the central processing unit for client device 230, for example, in which role controller 232 runs the client device operating system, launches to web browser 234, and facilitates use of content navigation module 216b and spherical graphics rendering module 218b. Web browser 234, under the control of controller 232, may execute content navigation module 216b and display visual representations and visual cues provided by spherical graphics rendering module 218b, to enable a user of client device 230 to navigate and select content available on content database 212 using a virtual sphere.
The operation of systems 100 and 200, shown respectively by
Beginning with step 310 in
The exemplary method of flowchart 300 continues with step 320, which comprises periodically updating the collected content. Continuing to refer to system 100, in
In one embodiment, there may be more than one updating schedule associated with step 320, to reflect differences in the time sensitivity of a particular type of information content. For example, updates to information content relating to news content categorized as substantially complete may be pulled less frequently than information content relating to news content categorized as evolving. As another example, the frequency with which information content relating to broadcast news is updated may increase during a predetermined time window preceding or following a scheduled broadcast. In one embodiment, updating may occur dynamically, as the result of an input received from user 138.
Flowchart 300 continues with step 330, which comprises extracting a subset of the collected content. Referring once again to
Moving on to step 340 of
As previously mentioned, one of the advantages provided by embodiments of the present invention is that identification of information content having enhanced desirability for the user becomes more intuitively recognizable to the user. One of the ways that this advantage is achieved, is by converting the analytical identification of content required by conventional approaches, which typically require scanning of a digest entry or synopsis, to a more visual, recognition based identification process. In one embodiment, associating the items of filtered content with intuitively recognizable respective visual representations may correspond to assigning an image, such as a key art or graphics image, to each content unit extracted in step 330. For example, each extracted content unit may be visually represented by an image having the appearance of a still photo of a person, place, or material article corresponding to the content unit, which may be accompanied by text or other labeling.
Continuing with step 350 of flowchart 300, step 350 comprises rendering the visual representations associated with the extracted content units on the surface of a virtual sphere. Step 350 may be performed by spherical graphics rendering module 118, and results in the visual representations being arranged and displayed on a virtual spherical surface, such as on a virtual model of planet Earth, for example. In one embodiment, arrangement of the visual representations into a hierarchically determined display format may further facilitate identification of desirable content. Thus, the visual representations may be arrayed so that the visual representation associated with a content unit estimated to be of highest desirability is placed in the center of the virtual spherical surface facing the user, for example, while visual representations associated with extracted content units estimated to be of progressively lower desirability to the user may be arranged towards the perimeter of the virtual spherical surface facing the user, more progressively farther from the center as the estimated desirability of the content reduces.
As was true during extracting, in step 330, criteria for estimating desirability of extracted content may include one or more predetermined criteria, such as how recently a unit of content was created, or how recently or how often a unit of content has been updated. Alternatively, or in addition, in some embodiments, estimating the desirability of extracted content may be performed according to criteria determined by a content administrator with authority over content stored on content database 112.
Steps 360 and 370 of flowchart 300 will now be described with further reference to
Returning now to flowchart 300, in
As may be apparent from
Continuing with step 370 in
In addition to the foregoing features, the embodiment of the present invention represented by
In addition, the user may modify the arrangement of visual representations on surface 444 of virtual sphere 442 by further interacting with virtual sphere 442 by causing it to rotate or spin. For example, user interface 440, through content navigation module 216b and in combination with spherical graphics rendering module 218b, may be configured to rotate virtual sphere 442 in response to user touch. In one embodiment, the present inventive system may cause virtual sphere 442 to rotate in a direction selected by the user and at a rate corresponding to the user interaction with user interface 440. That is to say, a slow side-to-side brushing motion by the user's finger may cause virtual sphere 442 to appear to rotate a short distance along an equatorial arc, e.g., to turn slightly. Analogously, a faster “flicking” motion by the user in the same direction may cause virtual sphere 442 to rotate farther or to spin temporarily. Similarly, in some embodiments, the user may be enabled to rotate or spin virtual sphere 442 in the direction of a longitudinal meridian, and/or along one or more oblique arcs, thereby enabling the user to selectively view substantially the entire surface of virtual sphere 442.
As another feature, the user may be empowered to shuffle, or randomly extract content units for rendering onto surface 444 of virtual sphere 442. As shown in
Thus, the present application discloses methods and systems enabling navigation and selection of content using an interactive virtual sphere. By associating content units with visual representations, the present disclosure describes an approach that encourages identification of desired content through visual recognition rather than deductive analysis. Moreover, by rendering and arranging the visual representations onto the surface of a virtual sphere with which a user may interact in a variety of interesting and entertaining ways, the present approach further facilitates an intuitive and pleasurable process for discovering content having desirability to the user.
From the above description of the invention it is manifest that various techniques can be used for implementing the concepts of the present invention without departing from its scope. Moreover, while the invention has been described with specific reference to certain embodiments, a person of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that changes can be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention. It should also be understood that the invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described herein, but is capable of many rearrangements, modifications, and substitutions without departing from the scope of the invention.
