Information displaying method and apparatus

摘要

A method of displaying information relating to one or more entities, the method including, in an electronic processing device, generating a network representation, the representation including a number of nodes, each node being indicative of a corresponding entity, and a number of connections between nodes, the connections being indicative of relationships between the entities. The method further includes causing the network representation to be displayed to a user, in response to user input commands, determining at least one user selected node corresponding to a user selected entity, determining at least one search to be performed in respective of the corresponding entity associated with the at least one user selected node, performing the at least one search to thereby determine additional information regarding the entity and causing any additional information to be presented to the user.

主权项

1. A method of displaying information relating to one or more entities, the method including, in an electronic processing device:
a) generating a network representation, the representation including:
i) a number of nodes, each node being indicative of a corresponding entity; and,ii) a number of connections between nodes, the connections being indicative of relationships between the entities; b) causing the network representation to be displayed to a user; c) in response to user input commands, determining at least one user selected node corresponding to a user selected entity; d) determining at least one search to be performed in respect of the corresponding entity associated with the at least one user selected node by;
i) determining an entity type of the at least one user selected entity;ii) displaying a list of a number of available searches relating to the at least one user selected entity in accordance with the entity type, wherein the list of a number of available searches is displayed as part of the network representation and wherein the list of a number of available searches includes a number of different databases that can be searched for information regarding the entity type of the user selected entity; and,iii) determining selection of at least one of the available searches in accordance with user input commands, allowing the user to select the search from the network representation, the selection including a selected database; e) performing the at least one search to thereby determine additional information regarding the entity by:
i) determining search parameters required to generate a search query for searching the selected database;ii) causing required parameters to be displayed to the user;iii) determining the required parameters in response to user input commands;iv) generating a search query using the required parameter, the search query being formatted in appropriate way for analysis and interpretation by the selected database; andv) providing the search query to the selected database to thereby determine additional information regarding the entity; f) generating a summary a list including a list of potentially relevant entities matching the at least one user selected entity; g) determining user selection of at least one potentially relevant entity; h) displaying a prompt relating to a cost of the search allowing a user to confirm the search is to be performed; i) in response to confirmation, causing the search to be performed; j) receiving a report indicative of the search results; k) parsing the report to determine any additional information regarding the at least one used selected entity; and l) updating the network representation to cause any additional information to be presented to the user.