JP2004515003A - GUI with library metaphor based on non-Euclidean geometry - Google Patents

Abstract

The data processing system has a GUI that allows the user to interact with the virtual environment. The environment has a graphical representation of the store based on the library metaphor. The storage is used for graphically archiving information items. The virtual environment has a path dependent geometry. This allows the storage to be modified to add additional items without visually breaking the structure of previously stored items.

Description

[0001]
[Field of the Invention]
The present invention relates to a graphical user interface (GUI) for a visually organized collection of items in a virtual library or environment.
[0002]
[Background technology]
U.S. Pat. No. 5,907,845 describes storing an online electronic book on a remote storage device. These books can be accessed through a server or other type of interface device. A bookshelf is formed and stored in the local storage. Appropriate electronic links are provided to access the electronic books on the bookshelf. The bookshelf provides a library metaphor that allows the user to organize online books in a way that is meaningful and useful to the user.
[0003]
A library metaphor in a GUI typically represents a file system that shows icons such as cabinets, shelves, and documents organized in cabinets and shelves. Icons can be placed and rearranged by the user.
[0004]
[Summary of the Invention]
Bookshelf is a well-known user interface (UI) metaphor that stores data. Known metaphors can be re-created as real physical models using the concept of Euclidean geometry in two or three dimensions, ie, while preserving the accepted geometry of the virtual model shown on the display monitor. The basic visual appearance of such a UI is completely determined by the user's position and orientation with respect to the model as if it were real.
[0005]
The problem with the traditional metaphor is that when new items are added, existing items must often be re-arranged. That is, the items are shifted or otherwise repositioned, after which they are no longer in the same position. This hinders the visually adapted extraction ("spatial memory") of information that the GUI must ensure to facilitate.
[0006]
The present invention proposes, for example, applying the concept of non-Euclidean geometry to a data store in a virtual environment represented by a bookshelf metaphor in the virtual environment. According to the present invention, it is possible to add a space at an arbitrary position in a virtual environment without rearranging existing contents. This is realized, for example, by making at least a part of the environment path-dependent.
[0007]
To clarify the concept of non-Euclidean space, consider a fictitious TARDIS device in a British science fiction television series named "Doctor Who". The device is represented as a telephone booth that occupies an area of roughly one meter to one meter on the outside, but is spacious like a mansion on the inside. This fictitious device requires additional elements to identify the basic appearance from a given advantage, and the appearance, in addition to the user's position and orientation, depends on the particular path to the advantage I do. To clarify the path dependence, consider the following example. Suppose that a person is standing at a certain position, walks forward 10 steps from that position, turns right, walks 10 steps, turns right, walks 10 steps, and finally turns right and walks 10 steps. In Euclidean space, the person has returned to where he last left. Non-Euclidean geometry in which the person finally stands in a different position.
[0008]
[Detailed description]
The invention will be explained in more detail by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0009]
In the drawings, the same reference symbols indicate similar or equivalent components.
[0010]
FIG. 1 shows a library metaphor as used in a GUI. The GUI in this case provides the user with access to a virtual environment 100, which is a data store visually represented by a number of bookshelves having shelf structures 102, 104, 106, 108, and 110. Structures 102, 106, and 108 are parallel to each other and separated by spaces 112 and 114, respectively. In the figure, the bookshelf forms a Euclidean space. That is, the data storage can be recreated as a real three-dimensional physical model. A user can navigate bookshelves in this environment as well as ordinary bookshelves in a true three-dimensional world in virtual environment 100.
[0011]
The data store provides a visual representation of an inventory, for example, a soundtrack of a user's CD collection, a movie of his / her DVD collection, a copy of a web page stored locally by the user and classified according to a theme or date, and the like. Used to display on. Each graphical object (not shown) on the shelf corresponds to a particular content information item. Clicking or otherwise selecting an object via the GUI activates the drawer mechanism. For example, the metaphor may be used in the user's home network to connect the user's CD jukebox, the user's DVD jukebox, and the HDD of the user's PC. The retrieval of a particular CD, DVD, or electronic file is managed by a script that is initiated by the user clicking on a graphical object. In another example, a user can lease storage space on a remote server and use a GUI to organize his / her data via his / her client. The storage service may provide editing tools so that the user can form a graphical representation of the object (eg, add labels and appropriate hyperlinks or scripts to retrieve the displayed information item).
[0012]
The data store may be shared by two or more users, eg, a family or another social community, to provide shared services and the like. Privileges are granted for access to one or all of the specific information items or objects that display them.
[0013]
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the transformed virtual environment 100. In this example, shelf structure 106 is modified to include shelf structures 204, 206, and 208 that can be accessed via space 202. The user may, for example, push the portion of the structure 106 inward (through appropriate tools in a GUI in the virtual environment 100) to move the shelf structure in as if the structure 106 were an elastically deformable physical object. Deform. Due to the non-Euclidean geometry of this portion of the virtual environment 100, the additional space 202 does not protrude into the space 114. That is, when the user moves from space 112 to space 114 in virtual environment 100 after forming space 204, space 114 in FIG. 2 is the same as the previous space, ie, the space in FIG.
[0014]
This concept of creating additional space in a virtual environment can be applied at a further level of organizing information items, for example, by shelves or by partitions of shelves. For example, the shelf 210 has partitions 212, 214, and 216. The partition 212 is enlarged in a direction perpendicular to the structure 102 to form a space 218. Note that the undeformed shelves and partitions remain visually organized on the shelves and partitions as before. The appearance of space in the virtual environment is not limited to partitions or segments, such as boxes, but may be curved or irregularly shaped displays as the designer deems appropriate.
[0015]
Further, environment 100 may be organized as a collection of spatial entities, such as multiple rooms or multiple floors with multiple rooms, or multi-storey buildings with cabinet rooms. The user can create or define additional cabinets, rooms, floors, buildings, etc. through the library metaphor. The links between these spatial entities indicate an association between a set of information items stored or storable on these entities. The link is user programmable and is displayed as a hallway or corridor linking two cabinets, rooms or buildings. The at least locally non-Euclidean geometry allows the user to visualize the links between sets based on, for example, themes, history, functions, or other classification criteria. In an overall Euclidean geometry virtual environment, such visual links intersect or at least visually interfere with each other. Using non-Euclidean geometry, links are displayed as simple passages.
[0016]
As one aspect of the present invention, consider the concept of a “motorcycle”. The collection of parts forms a functional block, for example, an oil pump, engine, frame, transmission, drive train, and the like. Various engines may mesh with any of the multiple frames and vice versa, and some transmissions may be used with any of the multiple engines and vice versa. For the design of test specimens, these components and the collection of components can achieve certain optimal conditions, such as acceleration, reliability, cost, or road holding performance, under conditions where the components to be combined are compatible. Be combined. Specimen design is therefore a solution to the optimization problem. To manage this, a version control system is used. Version control systems are well-known software tools that allow designers to see an overview of details, improvements, alternatives, etc. at different levels of the design process. Each selection of a specimen in a class of parts or in a class of parts limits the subsequent selection of options that allow solving the optimization problem. The GUI in the present invention allows a designer to interact graphically with the logistics of the design process in a version control system. For example, in addition to creating such additional space in a library of parts to accommodate improvements or new parts, selecting a class or test article in a class may give a history of the design process. Change the virtual environment by restricting access to cabinets or bookshelves (or rooms or floors) with the rest of the compatible classes or parts. In this way, the dynamic design process is mapped to a graphically displayed virtual environment having an area whose appearance or accessibility depends on the path leading to the area.
[0017]
Database applications and graphical version control systems are examples of aspects of the invention. The non-Euclidean concept for a virtual environment can be applied to, for example, a file manager application or a two-dimensional or three-dimensional graphic window manager application. For example, a virtual desktop manager is a software tool that allows a user to remember his / her application currently running on his / her PC or workstation, ie, the application whose window is open. The user can position the application window outside the field visible on the screen of the display monitor. Conventional virtual desktop managers provide a 2D Euclidean map of open windows, allowing the user to see what is open and pull out the window. In the present invention, the virtual desktop manager uses a non-Euclidean display, at least in part, to allow for path dependency within the window. As a result, the screen is not always confused. The library metaphor described with reference to the drawings may be used as a map of a virtual desktop to locate and retrieve a particular one of the open applications.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a graphical display of a virtual environment using a library metaphor.
FIG. 2
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a graphical display of a virtual environment using a library metaphor.

Claims (14)

An information processing system having a graphical user interface (GUI) based on a library metaphor that allows a user to retrieve information items, comprising:
A system in which the GUI displays a non-Euclidean virtual environment. The system of claim 1, wherein the environment is changeable by a user. The system of claim 1, wherein the geometry is path dependent in at least a portion of the environment. The system of claim 1, wherein a virtual space can be added to accept new information items in the environment. A software application that forms a GUI based on a library metaphor that allows a user to retrieve information items,
An application in which the GUI displays a non-Euclidean virtual environment. The application of claim 5, wherein the user is allowed to change the environment. The application of claim 5, wherein the geometry is path dependent in at least a portion of the environment. The application of claim 5, wherein the application allows a user to add a virtual space to accept new information items. 6. The application according to claim 5, comprising version control software and / or a database access application and / or a file manager application and / or a graphical window manager application and / or a virtual desktop manager. A method for enabling a user to interact with a virtual environment using a GUI based on a library metaphor, comprising:
Displaying the virtual environment via the GUI as at least a portion of non-Euclidean geometry. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein said user is allowed to change said environment. The method of claim 10, wherein at least a portion of the environment is represented in a path-dependent geometry. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein said user is enabled to add a virtual space to accept new information items. The method according to claim 10, wherein the virtual environment comprises a version control system display and / or a database application display and / or a file manager application display and / or a virtual desktop manager display.