Abstract:
Disclosed are methods for arranging list elements (e.g., results returned by a user search) according to anticipated “impact.” Thumbnails of the top elements are displayed on a screen of the user&#39;s device, with the size of each thumbnail related to that result&#39;s anticipated impact. In some embodiments, the arrangement of these thumbnails on the display screen is also based on the anticipated impacts with larger thumbnails placed near the center of the screen and successively smaller thumbnails arranged farther away. Different embodiments may calculate the anticipated impacts differently. The impact can be related to the rank order as assigned by a search engine. Any information about the user&#39;s current situation can go into the calculation of the anticipated impact. When the user is searching for information, longer video results may be assigned a larger anticipated impact because they are more likely to contain the wanted information.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is related generally to computing devices and, more particularly, to visually displaying information on a computing device. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The amount of information available on-line keeps growing at an ever accelerating pace. In many ways, this is a beneficial trend, and information is now available to help a typical user perform any number of typical tasks. 
     However, the very quantity of available information can be counter-productive. When a user performs an on-line search to find information relevant to a task that he is performing, he is often overwhelmed by the results: So many search “hits” are returned that the user may have a difficult time deciding which, if any, are the most relevant to the task at hand. While the user may have a high level of confidence that the information he needs can be found somewhere in the search results, this confidence does him little good if he cannot quickly sort through the mass of returned information to find the exact information that is most helpful to him. 
     This problem is exacerbated when the search results include videos. A user may be able to quickly scan and evaluate still images, but he may have to actually spend time viewing each video to determine if it is of interest to him. Rather than presenting video results one by one, various search engines provide multiple windows on the display screen of the user&#39;s device, where each window displays a small “thumbnail” of one video hit. This arrangement, however, often does not help the user to quickly scan through the videos: The multitude of simultaneous video thumbnails merely reinforces the user&#39;s sense of “information overload.” 
     As is well known, when a search engine retrieves a list of hits, it runs an algorithm to rank those hits according to some kind of relevance and then presents the hits to the user in an ordered ranking. With video results for example, the search engine may display thumbnails of only the “top” (that is, the most relevant as perceived by the search engine) four or five hits. However, the relevance-ranking algorithm used by the search engine may have little or nothing to do with the task that the user who requested the search is attempting to perform. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY 
     The above considerations, and others, are addressed by the present invention, which can be understood by referring to the specification, drawings, and claims. According to aspects of the present invention, list elements (e.g., results returned by a user search) are ranked by anticipated “impact.” Thumbnails of the top elements are then displayed on a screen of the user&#39;s device, with the size of each thumbnail related to that result&#39;s anticipated impact (generally, the larger the anticipated impact, the larger the thumbnail). This helps the user because his attention is drawn to the larger thumbnails that correspond to the elements with the greater anticipated impact. 
     In some embodiments, the arrangement of these thumbnails on the display screen is also based on the anticipated impacts. For example, the larger thumbnails (i.e., those corresponding to the elements with the larger anticipated impacts) are placed near the center of the screen, and successively smaller thumbnails are arranged farther and farther from the screen&#39;s center. Again, the user&#39;s focus, naturally drawn to the center of the display screen, is directed toward the elements with the highest anticipated impacts. 
     Different embodiments (and different situations encountered by the same embodiment) may calculate the anticipated impacts differently. The impact can be related to the rank order as assigned by a search engine, for example. In another example, when the elements are provided by a commercial entity (e.g., images of products for sale by that commercial entity), then that entity can assign a higher impact to products that provide a higher profit to the entity. Any information about the user&#39;s current situation (e.g., the time of day or his present physical location) can go into the calculation of the anticipated impact. For example, if the user is searching for local restaurants, those restaurants that serve breakfast may be assigned a larger anticipated impact if the search is performed early in the morning. When the user is searching for information, longer video results may be assigned a larger anticipated impact because they are more likely to contain the wanted information. 
     While especially useful when the elements include video clips, aspects of the present invention apply as well with still images, music, and any mixture of media. The actual display is tailored to the capabilities of the user&#39;s device including the size of the display screen and whether or not the device can display three-dimensional images. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS 
       While the appended claims set forth the features of the present invention with particularity, the invention, together with its objects and advantages, may be best understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which: 
         FIG. 1  is an overview of a representational environment in which aspects of the present invention may be practiced; 
         FIG. 2  is a generalized schematic of a device embodying aspects of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a flowchart of a method for using anticipated impacts when arranging images on a display screen; and 
         FIGS. 4   a  and  4   b  are exemplary screen shots illustrating the output of an embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Turning to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements, the invention is illustrated as being implemented in a suitable environment. The following description is based on embodiments of the invention and should not be taken as limiting the invention with regard to alternative embodiments that are not explicitly described herein. 
     In  FIG. 1 , a user  102  wishes to view a list of images on the display screen of his electronic device  104 . The list may be the result of, for example, an Internet search run by the user  102 . In some embodiments, the list is provided by a commercial entity, such as a retailer listing goods for sale. In any event, the images themselves may come from any of a number of sources: They may be retrieved from a local storage on the device  104  or may be retrieved from one or more remote servers  106 , the retrieving facilitated by a communications network  100 . 
       FIG. 2  shows a representative electronic device  104  (e.g., a cellular telephone, personal digital assistant, personal computer, digital sign, interactive kiosk, set-top box, or two- or three-dimensional television) that incorporates an embodiment of the present invention.  FIG. 2  shows the device  104  as a cellular telephone presenting its main display screen  200  to its user  102 . Typically, the main display  200  is used for most high-fidelity interactions with the user  102 . For example, the main display  200  is used to show video or still images, is part of a user interface for changing configuration settings, and is used for viewing call logs and contact lists. To support these interactions, the main display  200  is of high resolution and is as large as can be comfortably accommodated in the device  104 . In some situations, it would be useful for the user  102  to have access to a display screen even larger than the main display  200 . For these situations, a larger external display can be connected to, and controlled by, the device  104  (e.g., through a docking station). The device  104  may have a second and possibly a third display screen for presenting status messages. These screens are generally smaller than the main display screen  200 . Embodiments of the present invention can be applied to these screens as well as to the main display screen  200 , but for the sake of brevity, these additional screens are ignored for the remainder of the present discussion. 
     A typical user interface of the electronic device  104  includes, in addition to the main display  200 , a keypad and other user-input devices. The keypad may be physical or virtual, involving virtual keys displayed on a touch screen  200 . 
       FIG. 2  illustrates some of the more important internal components of the electronic device  104 . The network interface  202  sends and receives media presentations, related information, and download requests. The processor  204  controls the operations of the device  104  and, in particular, supports aspects of the present invention as illustrated in  FIGS. 3 and 4 , discussed below. The processor  204  uses the memory  206  in its operations. Specific uses of these components by specific devices are discussed as appropriate below. 
       FIG. 3  presents one embodiment of the present invention. The method of  FIG. 3  begins in step  300  when the electronic device  104  receives a list of a plurality of images. Often, the list will be the result of a search performed by the user  102 . The images may be received from a remote server  106 , may be retrieved from a memory  206  local to the device  104 , or may come from a variety of such sources. The list may include both moving images and static images. 
     In step  302 , at least some of the images on the list are assigned an anticipated impact. (For the sake of brevity, “anticipated impact” is often shortened to “impact” in the present discussion.) Different embodiments use different methods for assigning an impact. In one embodiment, the impact can mimic the relevance order assigned by a search engine. (Relevance is a well known concept in the art. As one example of computing relevance, a user&#39;s query string is compared with audio transcripts that accompany video snippets. Audio transcripts that match more terms in the query are more relevant. The number of matching terms for a transcript is the “relevance” assigned to that transcript, and the accompanying video snippets are ordered accordingly.) That is, the first “hit” returned by the search engine is assigned the highest impact, the second hit is assigned the next highest impact, and so on. In most embodiments, the relative size of the assigned impacts is more relevant to the present invention than are the actual values of the impacts. 
     In another embodiment, the assigned impacts reflect how much information each image may be able to provide to the user  102 . For moving images, a longer video clip may be assigned a higher impact than a short clip. 
     In yet another embodiment, the assigned impact reflects the importance of that image to the provider of the image. For example, the list of images may be the result of a search run by a retailer. Then, the retailer assigns higher impacts to images of products that produce greater profits for the retailer. 
     In still another embodiment, the assigned impact reflects a rating of an image, the rating given by, for example, members of a social network that includes the user  102 . 
     As a final example, the impact can reflect a “situational awareness” such as the time of day when a search is performed, or the physical location of the user  102  when he performs a search. Items on the list that are deemed to be more appropriate to the current situation (e.g., pancake houses if a search for restaurants is performed early in the day) can be assigned a greater impact. 
     The above factors, and others, can be compared and combined when assigning the impacts. 
     As seen above, different methods of determining the impact may be appropriate in different situations. The impacts may be received from the same source that sent the images themselves, or may come from a separate source. For example, the electronic device  104  can receive a list of images from a search server  106 , and the device  104  then queries another server to assign impacts to at least some of the images. 
     The method continues in step  304 , where at least some of the images are assigned a display size based, at least in part, on the assigned impact. Generally, an image with a larger impact is assigned a larger display size. 
     Most embodiments consider other factors when assigning the actual display sizes, such as the number of images to be shown simultaneously and the size of the display screen  200 . Some embodiments consider the relative magnitudes of the assigned impacts and reflect these relative magnitudes in the relative sizes assigned to the images. 
     In step  306 , some of the images are rendered to the display screen  200  of the electronic device  104 . The sizes of the images are as assigned in step  304 . The larger size images tend to draw the user&#39;s attention. Thus, the method of  FIG. 3  directs the attention of the user  102  to those images which have larger anticipated impacts, rather than, as in the prior art, presenting all images on an equal footing. 
     In some embodiments, the method of steps  300  through  306  is enhanced by arranging the rendered images in a specific way on the screen  200  of the electronic device  104 .  FIG. 4   a  presents a first example of this. In  FIG. 4   a , the images  400  through  408  are presented, left to right, then top to bottom, in the order of relevance as assigned by a search engine. This example shows that impact order may not match relevance order, as image  408  has the fifth highest relevance as determined by the search engine, but it has the highest impact ( 408  is the largest image). 
     Another arrangement (not shown) puts the images  400  through  408  in the order of assigned impact, left to right, then top to bottom. In this case, image  408  would be at the top left (at the beginning of the first row), and image  406  would be at the end of the second row (bottom right). 
       FIG. 4   b  shows the same images  400  through  408  as in  FIG. 4   a  but arranged around the center of the display  200  in order of decreasing impact. Image  408  has the largest anticipated impact, so gets pride-of-place: the center of the display  200 . Images  400  and  404  are the next larger and are put near to the center. Images  402  and  406  are smallest and are given “less desirable” locations. This arrangement, along with the different image sizes, draws the user&#39;s attention directly to the image with the largest anticipated impact. 
     The arrangement of  FIG. 4   b  is just one example of placing the images with the greatest impact in the most “visually attentive” regions of the display  200 . Another embodiment employs the well known “rule-of-thirds” of visual composition. Here, rather than clustering the greatest impact images around the center, these images are preferentially placed at the intersections of an invisible grid that divides the display  200  into three equally sized horizontal rows and three equally sized vertical columns. This is an aesthetically pleasing arrangement that again draws the user&#39;s attention to the images with the greatest impact. 
     The arrangements given above can include many more images than shown in  FIGS. 4   a  and  4   b . Of course, there is a trade-off between showing many images (which would on average have to be small to fit onto the display screen  200 ) and emphasizing the impact of a few images by making them much larger, thus leaving less room for other images on the display  200 . 
     In view of the many possible embodiments to which the principles of the present invention may be applied, it should be recognized that the embodiments described herein with respect to the drawing figures are meant to be illustrative only and should not be taken as limiting the scope of the invention. For example, different embodiments will define “anticipated impact” differently depending upon what is perceived to be important. Therefore, the invention as described herein contemplates all such embodiments as may come within the scope of the following claims and equivalents thereof.