Interface and method for exploring a collection of data

摘要

An interface is provided for permitting a user to explore a collection of data. The data collection provides nodes as structural elements, and references which are assigned to nodes and hold identifiers of other nodes. Multiple references can be assigned to each node, thus guiding a user of the system to multiple other nodes, and multiple references can hold the same address, so that multiple nodes can have references pointing to the same node. The interface allows visualizing the network created by the interconnection of the nodes on a display region. The interface also allows the user to intuitively navigate along the references in both directions of the references, so that the user can explore which nodes are referenced by a certain node, and also by which nodes a certain node is referenced. Electronic documents can be assigned to each node, and the interface allows these documents to be displayed either directly in a reserved display region of the interface, or by launching a matching application on the user's computer.

主权项

1. A display device comprising one or more processors configured to display an electronic interface to permit a user to explore a data collection of interrelated data, the data collection including records and directional references between records, the data collection comprising records having multiple incoming directional references and records having multiple outgoing directional references, the electronic interface being displayed on the display device comprising:
a display region; a first control element, the first control element being operable adjacent a first visual indicia being displayed on the display region, the first visual indicia corresponding to a first record, the first control element being responsive to the user so that when the first control element is operated, a first group of visual indicia is displayed on the display region, the first group of visual indicia comprising two or more visual indicia, each visual indicia of the first group of visual indicia corresponding to a record having an incoming directional reference pointing towards the first record to thereby define a first group of records; a second control element, the second control element being operable adjacent a second visual indicia being displayed on the display region, the second visual indicia corresponding to a second record, the second record not being identical to the first record, the second control element being responsive to the user so that when the second control element is operated, a second group of visual indicia is displayed on the display region, the second group of visual indicia comprising at least one visual indicia, each visual indicia of the second group of visual indicia corresponding to a record having an incoming directional reference pointing towards the second record to thereby define a second group of records; and a third control element, the third control element being operable adjacent a third visual indicia being displayed on the display region, the third visual indicia corresponding to a third record, the third control element being responsive to the user so that when the third control element is operated, a third group of visual indicia is displayed on the display region, the third group of visual indicia comprising two or more visual indicia, each visual indicia of the third group of visual indicia corresponding to a record having an outgoing directional reference pointing away from the third record to thereby define a third group of records; wherein the first group of records comprises the second record, the third group of records comprises the second record, and when the first control element, the second control element, and the third control element are operated, each visual indicia of a combined plurality of visual indicia, including the first visual indicia, the second visual indicia, the third visual indicia, the first group of visual indicia, the second group of visual indicia, and the third group of visual indicia, is displayed separate from any other visual indicia of the combined plurality of visual indicia to thereby display a non-recursive arrangement.