Patent ID: 9015633
Filing Date: 2015-04-21
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A data management apparatus comprising: a storage device operative to store positional information on objects in a data element space, the data element space being created by organizing a plurality of data elements into a plurality of categories, assigning a subspace to each of the plurality of categories, placing a plurality of subspaces in a multidimensional space, and distributing, in each of the subspaces respectively assigned to the plurality of categories, the objects representing data elements belonging to the associated category based upon attribute information of the data elements; a display unit operative to establish a viewing position and a viewing direction in the data element space, and to generate and display on a display device an image of the data element space by referring to the storage device and by rendering the objects located in the data element space, wherein: (i) each subspace of each category is defined by a substantially circular perimeter, a substantially central point within the subspace, and a plurality of axes extending from the central point towards the perimeter; (ii) each axis represents a respective attribute of the data elements defined by the attribute information thereof such that the data elements are distributed along the respective axes in accordance with the attributes thereof; (iii) respective axes of the plurality of subspaces having at least similar attributes are oriented in a substantially common angular position about the respective central points of the plurality of subspaces; (iv) respective subspaces having substantially similar attribute information are located closer together than respective subspaces having relatively different attribute information; and (v) only subspaces that are placed in the multidimensional space within a predetermined distance from the viewing position and in the viewing direction by referring to the storage device are displayed and any subspaces beyond the predetermined distance and outside the viewing direction are not displayed; and a control unit operative to: (i) acknowledge from an input device an instruction for updating the viewing position or viewing direction so as to update the viewing position or viewing direction.