Method of communication using sized icons, text, and audio - Patent Review 5973694

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Method of communication using sized icons, text, and audio

United States Patent

5973694

Link to this page

http://www.wikipatents.com/5973694.html

Inventor(s)

Steele; Richard D. (Palo Alto, CA), Gonsalves; Robert F. (Pleasanton, CA), Leifer; Larry J. (Stanford, CA)

Abstract

Language oriented information is communicated to and from a user by the use of a computer with a dynamic graphics display, having a pointing device for visually indicating a position through a cursor on the display. Various embodiments of the method include calling an icon to attention when the cursor is positioned on the icon, auto projecting an icon when it is activated, changing the icon image to denote its terminal node status, varying the play back speed of the audio/visual aspect of an icon, moving among different layers of a hierarchical database, and text searching and matching with icons.

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U.S. References

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5347628 Brewer Sep,1994	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]		5333254 Robertson Jul,1994	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]
5325481 Hunt Jun,1994	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]		5303388 Kreitman et al. Apr,1994	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]
5295243 Robertson et al. Mar,1994	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]		5287448 Nicol et al. Feb,1994	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]
5276785 Mackinlay et al. Jan,1994	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]		5237648 Mills et al. Aug,1993	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]
5218672 Morgan et al. Jun,1993	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]		5202961 Mills et al. Apr,1993	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]
5169342 Steele et al. Dec,1992	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]		5119079 Hube et al. Jun,1992	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]
5093907 Hwong et al. Mar,1992	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]		5065347 Pajak et al. Nov,1991	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]
5001697 Torres Mar,1991	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]		4974173 Stefik et al. Nov,1990	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]
4868766 Oosterholt Sep,1989	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]		4823283 Diehm et al. Apr,1989	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]
4823303 Terasawa Apr,1989	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]		4819189 Kikuchi et al. Apr,1989	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]
4656603 Dunn Apr,1987	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]		4559598 Goldwasser et al. Dec,1985	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]
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Clarisse et al, "An Icon Manager is LISP", IEEE workshop, Jun. 1985, pp. 116-131. . Apr,2007	Your vote accepted [0 after 0 votes]
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Technical Review Submit all comments and votes

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Claims

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What is claimed is:

1. A method of visually indicating to a user of a computer, having a plurality of data elements arranged in a tree structure with a root data element and a plurality of terminal node data elements, with each data element having a corresponding icon, said method comprising the steps of:

a) displaying one or more icons;

b) activating one of the icons displayed;

c) displaying one or more icons corresponding to the data elements of the icon activated in a direction away from the root data element;

d) continuing with the steps of b) and c) until an icon corresponding to the terminal node data element is displayed; then

e) activating the icon corresponding to the terminal node data element;

f) changing the display of the activated icon in response to the activation to indicate the terminal node status of the data element, as represented by the activated icon; and

g) resuming the display of a representation of the activated icon.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said resuming step displays the representation of the icon after a period of pre-determined delay.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said resuming step displays the representation of the icon immediately after a second activation.

4. A method of displaying graphical images having a hierarchical tree structure arranged in a plurality of layers, including an image in a root layer and a plurality of images in a terminal layer, said method comprising the steps of:

displaying a graphical image of the current layer, said graphical image having a plurality of icons, each of said plurality of icons being a graphical representation of a layer between the current layer and the terminal layer;

displaying one or more images in the layers between the current layer and the root layer, arranged in a sequential order;

activating one of said icons;

displaying a graphical image of the layer represented by the activated icon, as the current layer; and

displaying the image of the activated icon in