GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE FOR WEIGHTING INPUT PARAMETERS

Abstract: A graphical device is used to control a system. The device takes the form of a pie diagram. The relative sizes of the slices in the pie represent relative importance of system control parameters. The total size of the pie represents a total system parameter.

Description: Graphical user interface for weighting input parameters. I. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION A. Field of the Invention The invention relates to the field of graphical user interfaces for receipt of user input data for use in controlling a system having data processing capability. B. Related Art There is a plethora of user interfaces for specifying input data. II. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention stems from a recognition that control of many processor-based systems can be described at least conceptually by a linear equation, e.g. where the values xi, x 2 , B , x n are components of the total value A and the parameters ai, a 2 , B , a n are weights of the respective components. The equation may be a literal description of the system or it may be a conceptual description of the system, in the sense that it may describe how the user feels intuitively about the system rather than an actual mathematical relationship. In controlling a system described by such an equation, the user will want to adjust the input parameters and the total value. It is an object of the invention to provide a user-friendly interface for input and adjustment of the parameters, and optionally also of the total value. The object is achieved by a user interface comprising a geometrical shape. The geometrical shape is composed of sub-regions. Relative sizes of the sub-regions are adjustable in response to movement of a user pointer device. The relative sizes determine relative values of the input parameters. In an embodiment of the invention, the geometrical shape is a circle and the sub-regions are pie-shaped slices of the circle. EP 564 278 shows a graphical user interface with a pie diagram on a touch sensitive screen. Input parameters are deduced from position of a user touch relative to the pie diagram. The user does not adjust the relative sizes of the pie slices or the total size of the pie. US 5,627,951 shows a graphical user interface with a pie diagram. The pie diagram displays results of user color specifying inputs. The inputs themselves come from knobs located beside the screen. III. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The invention will now be described by way of non-limitative example with reference to the following drawings. Fig. 1 shows a processor based system in which a user interface in accordance with the invention could be useful. Fig. 2 shows a screen with a display in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention. Fig. 3 shows a flow chart of the operation of the user interface in accordance with the invention. Fig. 4 shows an audio system equipped with a user interface in accordance with the invention. Fig. 5 shows a dance hall system controlled by an interface in accordance with the invention. Fig. 6 shows an operating system controlled by an interface in accordance with the invention. IV. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Fig. 1 shows a processor based system on which the invention might be useful. The system comprises a display 101, a user pointer device 102, and an element 103 with the system functionality. The element 103 includes a processor 104 and typically some other element 105 which contributes to the system functionality, as will be explained further below. Element 105 could also be an external system controlled by parameters aj and A. The display is shown as a CRT in the drawing, but it could perfectly well be any other type such as a liquid crystal display or a small display located directly on element 103. The pointer device is shown as a mouse on a mouse pad, but it could be any other type of pointer device such as a track ball, a stylus, or a touch sensitive element within the display 101. The processor 104 is shown as an on-board microprocessor, but it could be any processor including a large stand alone computer. Fig. 2 shows a screen displaying a user interface in accordance with the invention. The interface includes a pie diagram 204. The pie diagram includes sub-regions 201, 202, and 203 representing the relative sizes of input parameters a \ , a 2 , B, a n , respectively. The sub-regions are displayed as slices of a pie. In the drawing, there are three pie slices, but that number is purely arbitrary. There can be any number of pie slices suitable to the functionality of the system to be controlled. The relative sizes of the sub-regions can be changed by dragging on the sub- region boundaries with the pointer device. Arrow 206 shows motion of a sub-region boundary in accordance with the invention. In response to boundary adjustment, the remaining sub- regions will adjust according to the linear equation that governs the particular system that is being controlled. The change to the remaining sub-regions may be spread uniformly over all the remaining sub-regions. Alternatively, the change may be absorbed entirely by the sub- region adjacent to the boundary moved. Yet another alternative is that the amount of adjustment to the remaining sub-regions may be a function of the angular distance of those sub-regions from the boundary that has been moved. Those of ordinary skill in the art will be able to design other functions for adjusting the remaining sub-regions in response to the movement at 206. The total size of the pie diagram represents the total value A. The total size of the pie diagram can be changed by dragging on the outer boundary of the pie. The arrow 205 shows the direction of motion of the outer boundary of the pie diagram in response to a user input requesting change of the total value A. The invention is shown in terms of a pie diagram, but other geometrical shapes could be used as well and the sub-regions can have any shape that is convenient. Fig. 3 shows a flow chart of the operation of the user interface in accordance with the invention. At 301 the system retrieves values of a 1 } a 2 , B , a n , and A stored in a previous use of the system. Alternatively, the system might set these parameters to default levels. At 302 the graphical device, which is the user interface in accordance with the invention, is displayed based on the parameters determined in box 301. At 303 the system outputs are calculated based on the parameters. At 304 the system checks for a user interaction with a graphic device. If, at 305, the boundaries have not changed then control returns to 304. If the boundaries have changed, the graphical device and the parameters ai, a 2 , B , a n , and A are adjusted at 307, according to the changed boundaries, and are stored. The procedure here is illustrated as an infinite loop, but one of ordinary skill in the art can easily add some exit to the loop. Alternatively, the loop can be terminated by a system interrupt or by turning the system off. Fig. 4 shows an audio system with a user interface in accordance with the invention. The audio system includes a CD player 401 with a CD slot 402 and speakers 404. The audio system also includes a touch sensitive liquid crystal display 403 with an interface in accordance with the invention. The interface is a pie diagram with pie slices representing a treble range of frequencies T, a bass range of frequencies B, and a middle range of frequencies M. The total size of the pie represents the total audio volume. If the user wants to increase the total audio volume, s/he must drag on the outer boundary of the pie in accordance with arrow 205. If the user wants to adjust the balance of the various frequency ranges, the boundaries between the pie slices must be moved per arrow 206. Thus if the slice marked T is large with respect to the other slices, the treble component will be high relative to the base and mid range. If the total pie is small, the volume will be low. Fig. 4 is illustrated as a CD player, but any other type of audio system could use the user interface described herein. More pie slices could be added if finer levels of frequency control are desired. Figs. 5 a and 5b show a disco dancing room with a control interface in accordance with the invention. Fig. 5a shows a wide angle view of the room. The walls W and the ceiling C are covered with LED's of various colors. The floor is transparent with colored lights underneath. Fig. 5b shows a station for a DJ. The station includes an audio system 503, a microphone 502, and an interface 501 according to the invention on a touch sensitive screen for controlling how many lights of which color are on at any one time. The interface includes a pie diagram where the total size of the pie indicates the total number of lights on. Each of the slices of the pie indicate a respective color of light. The relative sizes of the slices indicate in a relative way how many lights of each color are on. In the dance hall, as with any of the embodiments shown herein, an error message will have to be displayed if the user specifies control parameters which cannot physically be executed by the system. Fig. 6 shows a work station for a system operator of a large multitasking mainframe. The work station includes a user interface 601 in accordance with the invention for controlling CPU utilization. The system operator may drag on the boundaries of the user interface using the mouse 602. The user interface might be used to control different aspects of CPU utilization. One copy of the interface might be used to control current percentage of CPU allocated to different processes. Each slice of the pie would represent one of the processes currently running. If a large number of processes are running there will be many pie slices. The total size of the pie might represent total percentage of CPU utilization. Alternatively, one of the slices of the pie might represent unallocated portion. The system operator can then change the percentage of CPU utilization allocated to a process by dragging on the boundary of the slice representing that process in accordance with arrow 206. If some of the processes are too small to be seen on the pie diagram, those might be represented by a combination slice allocated to small processes. The system operator could then click on that combination slice to see a second pie diagram which would show small processes as a percentage of the combination slice. Another copy of the interface might be used to control the percentage of the day which a given user can take. Again, each user who consumes significant time could be represented by a respective slice. The system operator could then control what percentage of the day a user can get by adjusting the size of that user's slice in accordance with arrow 206. The screen of Fig. 2 might also be used to control a heating system with several zones, where the pie slices represent a share of heating resources allocated to a particular zone and the total size of the pie represents the total heating resources allocated. The heating control system has not been redrawn, because it would look just the same as the screen of figure 2. The actual heating control would then be part of element 105 in Fig. 1. The screen of Fig. 2 might also be used to control feature weighting in a database search system. Let us take the example of a database of images. A query of the database might include sample brightness, color, and texture indicators for matching with objects in the database. The interface according to the invention might then be used for weighting the importance of the indicators in the query. For instance, the parameter ai might represent the relative importance of the brightness indicator; a might represent the relative importance of the color indicator; and a 3 might represent the relative importance of the texture indicator. The parameter "A" might represent the desired strength of the total feature match in retrieved objects. Strength might be calculated by using a distance threshold in an n- dimensional feature space, where a candidate-object distance is the & weighted sum of feature distances. The object(s) retrieved from the database would then be that one or ones whose features best matched the indicators in the query based on the weighting specified by the user interface. More information about feature spaces in image retrieval can be found in Abdel- Mottaleb et al., "Aspects of Multimedia Retrieval", Philips Journal of Research, Vol. 50, No. 1/2, 1996, pp. 227-251. The screen of Fig. 2 might also be used to control a photo retouching system in which the sub-regions represent color balance in photographic images. The output images might be illustrated on the screen, or output on an appropriate printer, corresponding to element 105 in Fig. 1. Those of ordinary skill in the art of user interface design will be readily able to apply the graphical device of the invention to control of any number of other systems, beyond those explicitly disclosed in the present application.

Claims: CLAIMS: 1. A graphical user interface for controlling a system whose total output is a combination of component outputs, the total and component outputs being governed with reference to input parameters, the interface comprising a geometrical shape composed of sub- regions, the relative sizes of the sub-regions being adjustable in response to movement of a user pointer device, the relative sizes determining relative values of said input parameters. 2. The interface of claim 1 wherein the geometrical shape is a circle and wherein the sub-regions are pie-shaped slices of the circle. 3. The interface of claim 1 wherein a total size of the geometrical shape is adjustable in response to movement of the user pointer device and the total size represents the total output. 4. An audio control system comprising: - the interface of claim 3, wherein the sub-regions represent frequency ranges of output sounds of the system and the total size of the geometrical shape represents a total output volume of the system; processing means for controlling the total volume of the system in response to the total size; and - relative volumes of the frequency ranges in response to the relative sizes of the sub-regions; and control means for adjusting the total and component outputs in accordance with outputs of the processor means. 5. A lighting control system comprising the interface of claim 3, wherein the sub-regions represent wavelength ranges of output light of the system and the total size represents a total output brightness of the system; processing means for adjusting the total output brightness in response to the total size; and relative brightness of the wavelength ranges in response to the relative sizes of the sub-regions; control means for controlling the total and component outputs based upon an output of the processing means. 6. A photo retouching system comprising the interface of claim 1 wherein the sub-regions represent color balance in output photographic images; processing means for adjusting relative importance of color components in the output images in response to the relative sizes of the sub-regions; and photo output means for displaying the output images in response to the processor means. 7. A computer operating system comprising - the interface of claim 1 wherein the relative sizes represent percentages of a computer day allocated to particular users; processing means for adjusting relative allocations of the processing day in response to the relative sizes. 8. A heating control system comprising the interface of claim 3 wherein the relative sizes represent respective percentages of heating resources allocated to respective heating zones and the total size represents total heating resources allocated; control means for causing heating in accordance with the interface. 9. A database retrieval system comprising the interface of claim 1. 10. The system of claim 9 wherein the interface is for retrieving image data and the relative sizes represent weights to be given to aspects of image data during a query. 11. The system of claim 10 wherein the aspects include brightness, color, and texture. 12. A database retrieval system comprising the interface of claim 3 wherein the interface is for retrieving image data and the relative sizes represent weights to be given to aspects of the image data during a query and the total size represents a desired strength of matches with retrieved images.

Inventors: MANKOVICH NICHOLAS J, MANKOVICH, NICHOLAS, J.
Applicants: KONINKL PHILIPS ELECTRONICS NV, PHILIPS SVENSKA AB, KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS N.V., PHILIPS AB
Application year: 1998
Main classification: G06F3
IPC codes: G06F1, G06F3, G06F17, G06T1, G06T11, G09G5