Patent Application
20120221971
The present patent disclosure relates generally to presentation of user interface elements, and more particularly to methods and apparatus for presenting graphical elements.
Typical methods of providing a device interface are usually directed to device operation for playback of a single media file or source. Some conventional devices provide graphical menus for selection of particular media. However, these methods and devices generally require a particular input device for user selection.
With the development of network based services, many providers of media content allow for purchase and/or renting of media. Many users desire an interface for viewing and selecting media. Conventional approaches generally provide interfaces similar to network browser applications for selecting media. However, the conventional user interfaces and devices may not be suitable for presenting a plurality of files. In many instances, users desire the ability to browse a plurality of media files for rent and/or purchase on a display device using device input controls. One drawback of typical systems may be the ability to view or even navigate to a desired media title, especially when the number of titles that may be accessed is immense. Thus, there is a desire for a user interface that allows for selection and presentation of a large amount of relevant media that may be accessed using device controls. Further, there exists a need to allow for a more efficient and visually pleasing presentation of content to a user.
Disclosed and claimed herein are methods and apparatus for displaying a user interface to present a plurality of media titles. In one embodiment, the method includes detecting a user input associated with a displayed user interface, and determining, by a device, one or more media titles for presentation in response to the user input, wherein media titles are selected based on ratings generated for each media title relative to one or more attributes associated with the user. The method further includes displaying a first a graphical element based on a selected media title, wherein the first graphical element is assigned a focus state and associated with a position of a spiral formation, and displaying at least one additional graphical element based on one or more selected media titles, wherein the at least one additional graphical element is assigned a focus state and associated with a position of the spiral formation. The method further includes adjusting the display of the user interface, wherein a display position of each displayed graphical element is advanced relative to a previous display position of the spiral formation.
Other aspects, features, and techniques of the disclosure will be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art in view of the following detailed description of the embodiments.
The features, objects, and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings in which like reference characters identify correspondingly throughout and wherein:
One aspect of the present disclosure relates to displaying a user interface to present a plurality of media titles. Accordingly, a device and methods are provided for display of a plurality of graphical display elements. In one embodiment, graphical elements associated with media titles may be presented based on a structural formation. For example, elements may be displayed as moving along a path or formation, such as a spiral. In addition, a process is provided for selecting media titles for display. One advantage of the invention may be the ability to determine or select one or more media titles based on one or more user attributes including user viewing history, media library of the user, user selections of a user interface and one or more attributes associated with a user. In one embodiment, one or more media titles may be determined for presentation by rating the media titles based on attributes associated with the media titles and one or more attributes associated with a user. Presentation of media titles may further be based on a determination of the most relevant and/or important media titles to a user. In that fashion, presentation of one or more media files may be provided to user based on an arrangement of media titles and a determination of one or more relevant media titles.
Display of the graphical elements may include displaying first a graphical element with a first position of a spiral formation, and one or more additional graphical elements along the spiral formation following presentation of the first graphical element. In one embodiment, the graphical elements may be presented as an animation, wherein the display of the graphical elements may be characterized as providing an appearance of a graphical element as floating and/or suspended within at least a portion of a user interface. During display of the graphical elements, a focus state relating to one or more of shape, size and transparency may be graduated as the graphical element is advanced along the spiral formation.
As used herein, the terms “a” or “an” shall mean one or more than one. The term “plurality” shall mean two or more than two. The term “another” is defined as a second or more. The terms “including” and/or “having” are open ended (e.g., comprising). The term “or” as used herein is to be interpreted as inclusive or meaning any one or any combination. Therefore, “A, B or C” means “any of the following: A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; A, B and C”. An exception to this definition will occur only when a combination of elements, functions, steps or acts are in some way inherently mutually exclusive.
Reference throughout this document to “one embodiment,” “certain embodiments,” “an embodiment,” or a similar term means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Thus, the appearances of such phrases in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments without limitation.
In accordance with the practices of persons skilled in the art of computer programming, the disclosure is described below with reference to operations that are performed by a computer system or a like electronic system. Such operations are sometimes referred to as being computer-executed. It will be appreciated that operations that are symbolically represented include the manipulation by a processor, such as a central processing unit, of electrical signals representing data bits and the maintenance of data bits at memory locations, such as in system memory, as well as other processing of signals. The memory locations where data bits are maintained are physical locations that have particular electrical, magnetic, optical, or organic properties corresponding to the data bits.
When implemented in software, the elements of the disclosure are essentially the code segments to perform the necessary tasks. The code segments can be stored in a processor readable medium, which may include any medium that can store or transfer information. Examples of the processor readable mediums include an electronic circuit, a semiconductor memory device, a read-only memory (ROM), a flash memory or other non-volatile memory, a floppy diskette, a CD-ROM, an optical disk, a hard disk, etc.
Referring now to the figures,
User interface 100 may be configured to display graphical elements in a spiral arrangement. The display of graphical elements in an arrangement may be based on a user selection of user interface 100. The spiral arrangement of
In certain embodiments, user interface 100 may include menu 140. Menu 140 may relate to a listing which a user may select to display one or more media titles and/or navigate the user interface. As depicted in
User interface 100 may be configured to transition the display of content relative to one or more formations, including a transition of graphical elements in a spiral formation to a detailed view of a media title as discussed in
Referring now to
As shown in
I/O interface 215 may include one or more buttons for user input, such as a numerical keypad, volume control, channel control, menu controls, pointing device, track ball, mode selection buttons, and playback functionality (e.g., play, stop, pause, forward, reverse, slow motion, etc). Buttons of I/O interface 215 may include hard and soft buttons, wherein functionality of the soft buttons may be based on one or more applications running on device 200. I/O interface 215 may be employed for one or more user commands, such as scrolling or selection of a graphical element. I/O interface 215 may additionally be configured to decode one or more remote control commands for navigating a user interface. In another embodiment, device 200 may include one or more optical drives, not shown in
Communication interface 225 may be configured to allow for network based communications including but not limited to LAN, WAN, and Wi-Fi. Communication interface 225 may be configured to allow for one or more devices to communicate with device 200 via wired or wireless communication. Communication interface 225 may additionally include one or more ports for receiving data, including ports for removable memory.
Referring now to
Process 300 may continue by determining one or more media titles for presentation in response to the user input at block 310. By way of example, when a user hovers on a menu item selects a category of the user interface, one or more media titles may be determined. User selection of a family category of the user interface may result in selecting one or more media titles associated with family programming. Media titles may be selected based on ratings generated for each media title relative to one or more attributes associated with the user. Ratings for media titles may be generated based on one or more of a genre of the media title, actor associated with the media title, subject matter of a media title, and category of the media title. Attributes associated with the user may relate to one or more of user viewing history, media titles associated with a user library, and user selections of the user interface.
At block 315, the device can display one or more graphical elements. For example, the device may display a first graphical element based on a selected media title, wherein the graphical element is assigned a focus state and associated with a first position of a spiral formation. The device may further display at least one additional graphical element based on one or more selected media titles. The additional graphical elements may be assigned a focus state and associated with a second and/or subsequent position of the spiral formation. Displaying a graphical element may relate to displaying an animation of the graphical elements following a spiral formation associated with a smooth transition between one or more focus states. In one embodiment, a spiral formation relates to a helical or spiral animation path for display of one or more graphical elements within the user interface. Displaying graphical elements associated with media titles with a spiral formation and a focus state may allow for the elements to appear as floating and/or suspended along the spiral formation within a user interface.
In one embodiment, graphical display elements (e.g., graphical display elements 105) may be displayed with a focus state relating to one or more of a glow accent, size adjustment and transparency of a graphical element associated with a media title. In an exemplary embodiment, one of four focus states may be employed. A disabled focus state may relate to display of the graphical element, wherein the graphical element is non-selectable. A normal focus state may include display with focus off. A focused state relates to display of the graphical element with focus on and including a glow accent. Display of a graphical element without focus (e.g., focus off) may relate to display of the graphical element as partially faded. Display of a media title with focus (e.g., focus on) may relate to display of a graphical element without visual fading. In one embodiment, the glow accent of the focused state may be associated with a color. The selected state relates to display of a graphical display element with focus on and a glow accent associated with a color different from that of the focused state glow accent. In one embodiment, the glow accent may relate to a blue accent, while the selected item may relate to a white accent.
Process 300 may continue by adjusting the display of the user interface at block 320, wherein a display position of each displayed graphical element is advanced relative to a previous display position of the spiral formation. Adjusting the display may relate to updating a display position of one or more graphical elements with respect to a spiral formation. Alternatively, adjusting may relate to displaying one or more graphical elements in a grid formation based on a user selection. As will be discussed below in more detail, adjusting the user interface may result in a change of one or more focus states.
Referring now to
Block 515 of
Referring now to block 530 of
Referring now to
The focus transition may be initiated at block 630. At block 630 the previously selected graphical display element, first element 635, fades to a focus state having glow accent 640. In addition, the second element 645 now includes glow accent 650. Glow accents 640 and 650 may be associated with one of a same color and different color. Alternatively, glow accents 640 and 650 may be different colors than the glow accent 615.
The focus transition may continue as shown in block 655. At block 655 the first graphical display element 660 includes glow accent 665 while second graphical display element 670 increases in size and includes glow accent 675 relative to the first graphical display of element 660. Second graphical display element 670 may be increased in size to emphasize the selected focus state. The transition completes in block 680 wherein the first graphical display element is depicted in a normal state, shown as 685, and second graphical display element 690 includes a glow accent shown as 695 and spotlight 696. The focus transition of
In certain embodiments, user interface 700 may include menu 715. Menu 715 may relate to a listing that a user may select to display one or more media titles. For example, as depicted in
According to one embodiment, media titles 705 are depicted in a formation associated with a grid unit. Media titles may be arranged in a hierarchical arrangement, wherein a user may scroll, as shown by direction arrows 720 and 725. Arrangement of media titles in a hierarchical arrangement may be based on categorizations of featured or recommended content and then based on menu categorizations. In that fashion, media titles 705 may relate to a subset of media titles which may be presented to a user. By displaying a subset of the media titles available, a user may be presented with a manageable set of titles.
According to another embodiment, a user interface may provide detailed information and one or more functions of a selected media title when selected by a user. Further, the user interface may employ a focus transition of graphical display elements to aid in user navigation. Referring now to
Graphical display element 815 relates to a buy or purchase button which may be selected by the user to purchase media associated with title 805. Graphical display element 815 is depicted with a selected focus state to include glow accent shown by 820. Graphical display element 825 relates to a selection button which may be selected to rent media title 805. User interface 800 may further include a plurality of icons, shown by 830, wherein each icon may be selected as a source of the media content. User interface 800 further includes media data shown as 835 which may be selected by a user to obtain further information and details of media title 805. It may further be appreciated that a spotlight may be applied in
Referring now to
While this disclosure has been particularly shown and described with references to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the scope of the disclosure encompassed by the appended claims.
This application is related to commonly-assigned and concurrently filed U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Presenting Elements of a User Interface”, the disclosure of which is hereby fully incorporated by reference.
