Selection interface system

#1. Technical field

#The present invention relates to selection interfaces. More specifically, the present invention relates to selection and display interfaces implemented on a computer or across a network, whereby a user can select and gain access to an image or other information related to an item or class of items having multiple properties.

#2. Description of the Prior Art

#FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a prior art telephone interface;

#FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a prior art dial menu selection and control interface;

#FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of a selection and merchandising system, implemented across a network;

#FIG. 3 illustrates an Internet wire-mesh merchandising system embodiment of the present invention, referred to herein by the reference number 100. The system 100 comprises a webserver 102 connected to the Internet 104 and many clients or shoppers 106a-106k. The web server 102 interfaces to the Internet 104 with a network interface controller (NIC) 107. An interactive webpage user interface 108 provides functionality similar to Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, Wash.) Active Server Pages (ASP). An Internet file and server 110, such as Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), runs under control of an operating system 112, e.g. such as Microsoft Windows-NT server. The ASP 108 and IIS 110 together generate a web presence on the Internet. An expansion bus 114 supports a database 116 and a general purpose storage disk 118. Various Microsoft Windows-NT services can run without requiring a user to be logged on to the system, e.g. Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, Dynamic Host Interface Protocol (DHCP), and even Windows Internet name Service (WINS) servers. These are preferably stored in disk 118.

#The internet wire-mesh merchandising system 100 is readily adapted to a wide variety of networks, processors, and operation system environments, wherein information, such as a product image, is changed to reflect a current selection. For example, while some system embodiments 100 comprise HTML pages which are pulled in response to a selection, the Internet wire-mesh merchandising system 100 is readily integrated into other environments. Some current system structures pull, i.e. call, information from the database 116, such as through a job description in My SQL and PHP, wherein images are retrieved from an SQL database and are displayed in response to JAVA commands.

#FIG. 4 represents a graphical user interface (GUI) 200 that is presented to an Internet user on a web browser, e.g. Netscape Communicator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Such GUI is generated by the ASP 108 and IIS 110 (FIG. 3) when the user logs on to the uniform resource code (URL) address of the website operator. The GUI 200 typically comprises a navigation window 202, a sample-picture window 204, a ruler 206 for scale, and a comments field 208. The navigation window 202 permits the user to navigate through wire-mesh product samples that have finer mesh, coarser mesh, thicker wires, and thinner wires, e.g. by clicking on a set of hyperlink buttons 210-213, respectively. The material used in the wire-mesh product pictured in window 204 can be selected by clicking on any of the several buttons 214-222, e.g. such as brass 214, bronze 215, copper 216, galvanized 217, micronic 218, sintered 219, welded stainless steel (S/S) 220, woven stainless steel 221, and other materials 222. It may occur that meshes and wire sizes available in one material may not be available in another material. Amplifing remarks about the wire-mesh product currently selected are provided in the comments field 208.