Abstract:
In a mobile phone, methods and systems for rapidly and efficiently navigating through and browsing large structures of related information. An interface of one or more states presenting user selectable items, such that any item may be activated in one or more ways to directly access multiple levels of an underlying catalog or other structured arrangement of information.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/636,335, filed Dec. 14, 2004. The contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     Mobile phones are typically equipped with always on or on demand access to wireless data networks, through which it is possible to access ever larger databases of information stored in remote locations. The challenge to the user is to effectively and rapidly navigate such data on a device typically limited to a small screen and to a keypad with many fewer keys than a desktop (QWERTY) keyboard and no mouse or other high resolution navigation input.  
         [0003]     The standard solution is to access information though a browser metaphor (WAP) presenting one screen of information at a time with links to other pages retrieved one at a time from remote locations.  
         [0004]     Therefore, there exists a need for a more user friendly interface for small screen devices such as on a mobile phone or comparable device.  
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005]     For situations where data are structured in common ways, such as hierarchies of information (e.g. music (see 200), phonebooks (state, city, category, name), news or other serial publications (publication, headlines, topics, volume number or date)), the present invention includes systems and methods that enable rapid, easy, and intuitive navigation though locally stored information within the mobile phone. The local information may be first received, in whole or as a series of updates, from a remote server. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING  
       [0006]     The preferred and alternative embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the following drawings.  
         [0007]      FIGS. 1-5  are images of a user interface for a mobile device formed in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and  
         [0008]      FIG. 6  is a schematic diagram of data used by the user interfaces of  FIGS. 1-5 . 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0009]      FIG. 1  illustrates a mobile phone  200 . The phone  200  includes a screen  201  and speaker(s)  203 . Messages are presented one the screen  201  and through the speaker(s)  203 . The screen  201  is also used by a user for selection of recipients. A data bus  206  is connected to various elements of the phone  200 . The phone  200  also includes a processor  207 , random access memory (RAM)  208  and persistent memory  209 , which could be re-writeable FLASH memory. The phone  200  includes a radio  210  to communicate with cellular wireless voice and data network base stations  214  through their associated mobile phone carrier  215  and onward through a gateway  216  to a public or private data network  218 , such as the Internet.  
         [0010]     The radio  210  can send and receive a variety of packet data  229  using one of a variety of protocols (UDP, TCP, SMTP, HTTP, etc) through the data network  218 . Connected to the data network  218  is a server complex  231 . The server complex  231  stores and can send structured catalog data to the phone  200 .  
         [0011]     The phone  200  executes a catalog access user interface application that allows a user to easily traverse through a multi-level catalog of various topics. The multi-level catalog may be stored with the memory  209  or may be retrieved from other sources, such as the server  231 , over the network  218 .  
         [0012]      FIG. 2  illustrates a tree structure  280  of an example catalog that is accessible by a user operating the phone  200  shown in  FIG. 1 . In one embodiment, the tree structure  280  includes 4 levels. This example catalog is a catalog of music, which is the root. Level 1 includes various Genres of music. Level 2 includes specific artists that may be associated with one or more Genres from Level 1. Level 3 includes albums or compilations of songs that that may be associated with one or more artists from Level 2. Level 4 includes songs that that may be associated with one or more albums from Level 3.  
         [0013]      FIGS. 3-5  illustrate an All selection that can be included in any Level except the last level—Level 4. Normally when one traverses down the tree structure  280 , the information from the catalog that is presented to the user is the sub information of the item selected from the above Level. For example, if the user selects Genre 1, the user is presented with all the artists (Level 2) of Genre 1. However, if the user selected All in Level 1, all artists across all Genres are presented to the user. Referring to  FIG. 4 , if the user selected all from Level 2 when in the artists of Genre 1, then all the albums of all the artists of Genre 1 are presented.  
         [0014]     As shown in  FIGS. 4 and 5 , the user can traverse from Level 2 to Level 4 by selecting an artist or all in Level 2 and selecting a song option. This is shown by example in  FIGS. 8-10 .  
         [0015]      FIG. 6  shows a front view of a mobile device  250 , such as a mobile phone. The device  250  includes a screen  252  for displaying information. A first area  254  of the screen  252  displays a main title or header. A second area  256  of the screen  252  displays optional subsidiary header information. A third area  258  of the screen  252  displays a list associated with whatever is presented in the first area  254 . A fourth area  260  of the screen  252  displays a label over a left key  264  and a fifth area  262  of the screen  252  displays a label over a right key  266 .  
         [0016]     The device  250  includes a 5-way switch or joystick (up, down, left, right, and press)  268  or other combination of switches having at least four inputs. Optionally included is a 12 key pad  270 , such as a phone dialing pad.  
         [0017]     As shown by example in  FIG. 7 , a title (e.g., Category of music) is displayed in first area  254  on the screen  252  when the user opens a catalog user interface application. If the application has more than one mode, the active mode is indicated by a highlighted tab in the second area  256 . The joystick  268  allows a user to navigate between modes. In mode 1, a list or partial list of top level categories or genres is displayed in the third area  258 . One of the categories or genres in the list is highlighted (pop  313 ). The list includes a category/genre selectable indicator  320 , which conveys the meaning of the items presented below it. The indicator  320  is comparable to all as shown in  FIGS. 3-5 .  
         [0018]     In one embodiment, if a user exits the displayed application, by activation of the right key  266  to select exit that is located in the fifth area  262 , and returns to the application at a later time, the highlighted category/item at the moment of exit is remembered and restored.  
         [0019]     When the user moves the joystick  268  up or down, a different item in the list is highlighted. If the user then depresses the joystick  268  or activates the left key  264  that is under the term select in the fourth area  260 , the application transitions the interface to a next state, which is a navigation to the relevant set or subset of the catalog data. For example, after the user has depressed the joystick  268  or activated the left key  264  when pop  313  was highlighted, the user interface  400  shown  FIG. 4  is presented. The title is changed to Pop (first area  254 ) and the items having a child relationship to Pop are displayed in the second and third areas.  
         [0020]     In another embodiment, the underlying data to be browsed or navigated may have any number of levels.  
         [0021]     The user interface  400  includes rapid access to multiple levels of information in the underlying catalog. In this example three levels as shown in the second area  256 . The left/right joystick  268  allows one to navigate between the levels shown in the second area  256 .  
         [0022]     Upon entry into the user interface  400  from the user interface  300 , catalog information from the subset of the first level of the catalog selected by the user in user interface  300  is displayed.  
         [0023]     In one embodiment, the relatively highest accessible level is centered in the second area  256  and other levels are positioned on either side of that. The other levels in the second area  256  are each accessible by a left or right motion of the joystick  268 . Other arrangements of levels are possible as are other arrangements of keys to cause the transition.  
         [0024]     A top item displayed in the third area  258  identifies the meaning of all other items listed below it. For example, “All Artists” is the general description associated with the “artist” tab in the second area  256  for describing the list of items presented below “All Artists”.  
         [0025]     When the user moves the joystick  268  to the right or activates the key  264  located below “select”—the fifth area  260 , the user interface transitions to the fourth level user interface  500 ,  FIG. 9 . In this example, “Abba” was highlighted before the transition. Therefore, the user interface  500  presents “song” category information previously stored and associated with “Abba”.  
         [0026]     When the user moves the joystick  268  to the left, the user interface transitions to the third level user interface  600 ,  FIG. 10 . In this example, because “Abba” was highlighted before the transition, the “album” information previously associated with “Abba” is presented in the second area  258 . Other arrangements of the levels 3 and 4 are possible. One item  613  of the third level (or any level above the terminal level) conveys the meaning of all things at this level—“All Albums”.  
         [0027]     Up/down actions of the joystick  268  changes which item in the second area  258  is selected/highlighted.  
         [0028]     Activation of right key  266  when “back” is located in the fifth area  262  transitions the interface back to the previous interface at which point the highlighted item in the second area  258  is the item associated with the title that was displayed in the first area  254 . For example, when the user selects the right key  266  in user interface  400  with “Pop” in the title/first area  254 , the user interface  300  appears with “pop” highlighted in the second area  258 . In other words, the title in the title/first area  254  optionally displays the name of the higher level category from which the user navigated to enter this user interface. This may be one or more levels above in the underlying catalog—information presently displayed in the second area  258 .  
         [0029]     When in the user interface  500 , an inward press of the joystick  268  or activation of the key  264  transitions the interface to take actions associated with the indicated/highlighted catalog item in the second area  258 . For example, an action may include purchase, download, content render (playback), present more information associated with the item, or other actions depending on the selection for input or an initial state.  
         [0030]     When a left motion of the joystick  268  is performed, the user interface  500  is transitioned to the second level of the catalog information, user interface  400 , at which point the highlight appears on the line which was last selected in the navigational sequence at the most recent instance when level two of the catalog was visible (or the highest accessible catalog level from the current state).  
         [0031]     While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, as noted above, many changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is not limited by the disclosure of the preferred embodiment. Instead, the invention should be determined entirely by reference to the claims that follow.