Abstract:
A system and a method are described for providing a graphical user interface display with a conspicuous image element. In one example, a particular image element is first identified. Predetermined rules are then applied to ensure that the particular image element in a first window in a displayable image has a unique user visible display attribute absent from other image elements in the first window. Predetermined rules are also applied to ensure that the unique display attribute is absent from other image elements in any other window concurrently displayed in the displayed image. The particular image element is then enabled to be responsive to user selection.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of a provisional U.S. application, U.S. Ser. No. 60/354,137 by G. Adleman, filed Feb. 4, 2002. 
     
    
     
       FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    This invention generally relates to a computer graphical display, and more particularly, to a system and method of displaying an element so that an observer can perceive it quickly.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0003]    User interfaces for an embedded or a proprietary computer system (e.g., a patient monitor interface for medical use), or a non-embedded or non-proprietary system (e.g., a windows browser), often have a user interface focus element. FIG. 1 shows, for example, a user interface graphical display  100  similar to that of a well-known Microsoft Windows® operating system. Display  100  is shown having a currently focused icon such as “Small Icons”  102  command selection in the “View” command pop down list  101 . As a user moves a cursor  130  up and down list  101 , an item in the list  101  that is pointed to by cursor  130  will be highlighted. For example, the currently focused icon  102  is typically highlighted or made conspicous in some way by changing its attribute, such as, for example, by inversing the text, making it a different color or adding an outline box, etc., to indicate that the element is enabled to be acted upon.  
           [0004]    In the example of FIG. 1, highlight of icon  102  is shown as, for example, having a different background color, which is represented by a darkened background shading in the black and white rendering of FIG. 1. The highlighted icon  102  may then be acted on by a further user confirmation input (e.g. via a mouse click or enter key depression).  
           [0005]    In addition, when searching on the world wide web, a search engine site may automatically highlight a word that a user has entered to make a search, when a found web page matching the search word is being displayed. This would allow a user to easily scroll through the found web page to better locate the portion of interest on the web page.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0006]    The present inventor recognizes that a highlighted or an enabled element such as element  102  shown in FIG. 1 is not always obvious to a user. This is especially so when the method of highlighting a currently enabled icon is not unique to all other elements on a display screen. That is, a display attribute being used to highlight an element may already be in use by another element in the same window or display.  
           [0007]    This problem is made worse in today&#39;s computing environment in which multiple applications are opened and displayed in various windows on the same display, as shown for example, in FIG. 1. This problem also occurs if an element was highlighted by a prior user or in a prior application and/or window. In any case, finding an enabled element may take considerable effort and may involve methodically and visually scanning the entire screen.  
           [0008]    The present inventor also recognizes that a visual presentation with a distinctly unique element on that presentation can be perceived more quickly by an observer. Research on visual search done by Treisman and others (see, e.g.,  Preattentive Processing in Vision,  Computer Vision, Graphics, and Image Processing 31, 156-177 by A. Triesman; and Guided Search 2.0:  A Revised Model of Visual Search,  Psychonomic Bulletin &amp; Review 1, 2, 202-238 by J. M. Wolfe) suggests that an observer can process an entire image in parallel when a single, unique element is being searched for. It is also found that search time goes up dramatically if even a single other element of the same visual type is present. None of the research, however, applies these principles practically to solve the problem identified herein.  
           [0009]    Therefore, the present inventor reconginzes that it is desirable to have a solution which enforces a unique appearance of an enabled or focused item, for example, in a window or on a whole display screen. In one exemplary embodiment, a system and a method are described for providing a graphical user interface display with a conspicuous image element. A particular image element is first identified. Predetermined rules are then applied to ensure that the particular image element in a first window in a displayable image has a unique user visible display attribute absent from other image elements in the first window. Predetermined rules are also applied to ensure that the unique display attribute is absent from other image elements in any other window concurrently displayed in the displayed image. The particular image element is then enabled to be responsive to user selection.  
           [0010]    According to another aspect of the present invention, another exemplary system and method for providing a display screen are also described. A particular image element is identified. A predetermined rule is applied to determine whether a display attribute of the particular image element is unique in an image region. If the display attribute of the particular image element is determined not to be unique in the image region, then display attributes of the other image elements which would have the same attribute as that of the particular image element in the same region are changed.  
           [0011]    In yet another embodiment, the display attributes of the other image elements which are found to have the same attribute as that of a selected image element in the same display region will remain unchanged, but the attribute of the selected image element itself will be changed to make itself unique. In any case, the present invention displays an identified image element conspicuously so that user perception time on a screen is advantageously decreased. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0012]    In the drawing:  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 1 illustrates a prior user interface for a computer system.  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary user interface graphical display according to principles of the present invention.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 3 illustrates another exemplary user interface graphical display according to principles of the present invention.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary process according to principles of the present invention.  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary system capable of practicing the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0018]    [0018]FIG. 1 illustrates a known computer user interface  100 . Specifically, a selectable icon  102  is made conspicuous by having its display attribute changed in some way such as, for example, by adding a color background (shown as a darken background in FIG. 1). Unfortunately, however, it is also shown in FIG. 1 that this attribute is not unique throughout the whole display screen  100 . Specifically, element  103  in the background of the same window  111  also has the same display attribute as that of element  112 . In addition, elements  104  and  108  in window  112 ; elements  105  in window  113 ; element  106  in windows  114  and element  107  on the same display screen  100  in FIG. 1, also share the same display attribute as the currently focused icon  102 . Since there are several elements that have the same display attribute on screen  100 , it adds time for a user to perceive which icon is the one that is the mostly recently enabled and can be acted upon next.  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 2 shows a first exemplary graphical display screen  200  according to the principles of the present invention. Graphical display screen  200  also has multiple windows  211  to  214 , similar to display screen  100  shown in FIG. 1. Graphical display  200  is processed and displayed by an exemplary process according to the principles of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 4.  
         [0020]    At step  403  of FIG. 4, a particular image element is first identified to be processed, such as for example, icon  202  in window  211  of FIG. 2. An image element may comprise, but is not limited to, for example, an icon, a user prompt, one or more text characters, one or more symbols, a graphics element, and/or a user selectable image feature such as a window background color selection, etc.  
         [0021]    An image element may be identified to be processed at step  403  because for example, it is a command icon that has been focused by a cursor  230  and is enabled for further action by a user, such as, for example, “Small Icons”  202  of FIG. 2. An image element may also be identified to be processed at step  403  because a user has purposely highlighted it in an application such as a word processor. For example, element  205  in the word processor application window  213  of FIG. 2 illustrates this type of image element.  
         [0022]    At step  405  of FIG. 4, a determination is then made as to whether a user has previously selected this exemplary feature according to principles of the present invention. If this feature has not been selected, the system would then process and display the identified image element in a conventional matter at step  406 . That is, the identified image element will be displayed with a display attribute to highlight it, without regard to display attributes of the other elements on the display screen. The conventional result would be the same as that shown on screen  100  of FIG. 1.  
         [0023]    On the other hand, if the exemplary feature has been selected, further processing will be made before the identified element is displayed with a display attribute. A display attribute according to the present invention may be, but is not limited to, for example, a particular image element color, a particular image element shape, a particular image element type of highlighting, a particular image element foreground or background, a particular type of image element shading, a particular image element outline, a particular image element fill pattern, a particular image element size (e.g. length, width, and/or height), a particular image element orientation, a particular image element brightness, a particular image element variation with time (e.g., flicker, motion, motion direction), a grouping of a particular image element, and a particular image element font.  
         [0024]    Continuing at step  407  of FIG. 4, a determination is made as to whether the identified image element with its display attribute for making it conspicuous to a user would have a unique display attribute in an associated window or application. At step  409 , if it is determined that another element in the selected window has the same display attribute as the identified image element, one of following exemplary alternatives to make the identified image element conspicuous may be employed.  
         [0025]    In the first exemplary alternative shown at step  409 , display attributes of the other elements in the same window that are found to have the same attribute as the identified element will be changed to another pre-selected attribute. That is, the identified element (e.g., icon  202 ) will be displayed with the same display attribute as before, but another, new display attribute will be assigned to any of the elements in the same window that would have the same attribute as that of the identified image element. This is illustrated in window  211  of FIG. 2. The “Small Icons” element  202  of FIG. 2 is still shown to have the same display attribute as before as shown in FIG. 1 (i.e., illustrated by having the same darken background). Element  203  in the same window  211 , however, has been changed to another display attribute, as illustrated by its un-darken, white background. This allows identified element  202  to be displayed with a unique attribute in window  211  of FIG. 2, according to one aspect of the present invention.  
         [0026]    According to another alternative of the present invention at step  409 , the system may suspend the substitution of the display attributes for the other elements in the same display region, even though this may make the identified element not unique. This is because the present inventor recognizes that some display attributes may be critical to correctly rendering a display image. This may be the case, for example, if the other elements are part of a highly detailed, mega-pixel image.  
         [0027]    The present inventor further recognizes that since there are many ways of changing a display attribute to emphasize an element on a screen, another aspect of the present invention is to allow a system to select another display attribute for the identified image element itself, if a first selection is not unique. Therefore, in another exemplary alternative shown at step  409  of FIG. 4, a new display attribute for the identified element itself will be selectively chosen, before it is displayed, so that changes to the other elements may be avoided.  
         [0028]    For example, a display attribute for the identified image element may be selectively chosen from a list of possible display attributes, until a unique one is found. This will ensure that the new display attribute of the particularly identified image element can be displayed conspicuously, without having to change display attributes of the other elements. This alternative process is illustrated in FIG. 3 of the present invention. It is shown in FIG. 3 that display attribute of “Small icons”  302  has changed from that appearing in FIG. 1 to another attribute, as illustrated by a lined background of icon  302  shown in FIG. 3. The display attribute of the other element  303  in the same window  311 , however, remains the same as before as shown in FIG. 1.  
         [0029]    Continue at step  411  of FIG. 4, once the display attribute of the identified element is made unique in its own window or application, a determination is made to see if the display attribute of the image element is also unique in other windows or applications on the rest of display screen. At step  413 , if the determination at step  411  is negative, then one of the previously described exemplary alternatives of making the image element conspicuous as described in step  409 , will be expanded to apply to all the other windows on the same display screen.  
         [0030]    That is, for example, using a first alternative shown at step  413 , the display attributes of other elements in different windows of display screen  200  which would have the same display attribute as that of the particular image element, will be changed to have another display attribute. For example, FIG. 2 shows that elements  204  and  208  in window  212 ; element  205  in window  213 ; element  206  in windows  214 , and element  207  on the same display screen  200  have now been changed to have another display attribute as illustrated by having a white, un-darken background. The “Small Icons”  202  is therefore made conspicuous on the entire display screen  200 , according to the present invention.  
         [0031]    In another alternative as shown at step  413 , the changes to the other elements in the other windows may be suspended, if it is determined that the image being displayed is of a certain type. The result would then be the same as that displayed in FIG. 1.  
         [0032]    In yet another alternative at step  413 , the display attribute of the identified image element is changed itself, leaving the attributes of the other elements in the different windows unchanged. This result is illustrated in FIG. 3 which shows that icon  302  now has a different display attribute (shown as having a lined background), while the display attributes of the other elements remain the same. The result still allows a user to easily perceive icon  302  among the various other highlighted elements, as shown in FIG. 3.  
         [0033]    Once all the relevant display attributes for various image elements have been processed according to the previously described steps of FIG. 4, they will be ready for display along with the conspicuously identified image element. The identified image element is also enabled to be responsive to a user selection, at step  415 .  
         [0034]    [0034]FIG. 5 describes an exemplary system for generating a graphical display in accordance with the teachings of the present invention. System  50  may comprise a general purpose computer or a specially constructed computer. A general purpose or specially constructed computer may be used with a program or programs in accordance with the teachings herein. An example of general purpose computer may be a IBM-compatible personal computer, capable of running MS Windows®. An example of a specialized machine may be a patient monitoring system for used in various medical fields.  
         [0035]    The display process of the present invention, as shown for example, in FIG. 4, may be implemented using an exemplary system illustrated in FIG. 5. System  50  comprises an input/output (I/O) section  51  which is used to communicate information in an appropriate form to and from other components of system  50 . In addition, system  50  comprises a central processing unit (CPU)  52  coupled to I/O section  51  and a memory  53  such as RAM and/or ROM for storing computer programs and other information to be executed. An example of a computer program which may be executed is a process illustrated in FIG. 4 of the present invention.  
         [0036]    System  50  includes a display  60 , such as, for example, a CRT monitor, a liquid crystal display (LCD), or others It further includes a cursor control  54 , such as, for example, a mouse, a track ball, joy stick or other device for selectively positioning a cursor  59  on a display screen  62  of the display  60 . Typically, cursor control  54  includes a signal generation means, such as a switch  55  which a user of the computer system may use to generate signals directing the computer to execute certain commands which have been focused or enabled by the cursor control  54 . System  50  also includes a keyboard  56  to input data and commands from a user, as is well known in the art.  
         [0037]    Also shown in FIG. 5 is a mass storage device  58 , such as a hard disk, coupled to I/O circuit  51  to provide additional storage capability for computer  50 . In addition, a CD/DVD ROM 57 is further coupled to I/O circuit  50  for additional storage capacity or as another I/O device. It will be appreciated that additional devices (not shown) may be coupled to computer  50  for various purposes, as well known in the art.  
         [0038]    As illustrated in FIG. 5, display  60  comprises a display screen  62  in which a window  63  is displayed. An example of a display screen  62  is shown, for example, as display screen  200  of FIG. 2 or screen  300  of FIG. 3. An example of a window  63  is shown, for example, as window  211  of FIG. 2 or window  311  of FIG. 3.  
         [0039]    With an embedded or a proprietary system such as a medical patient monitoring system, one exemplary way of implementing the present invention is to have a programming standard agreed to and followed by all programmers writing programs for the same system. Imported applications would need to be modified to conform to this standard. A programmatically enforced method may provide even more benefit in this development environment since considerable verification would be required to ensure all software complies with the unique highlight standard.  
         [0040]    With a non-embedded, or non-proprietary system, unique user input focus element may be most effectively enforced at the operating system level. This enforcement may easily be done for user interface appearance and behavior elements since they are determined through the operating system.  
         [0041]    It is to be understood that the embodiments and variations shown and described herein are for illustrations only and that various modifications may be implemented by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention.