Method for interactive browsing and visualization of documents in real space and time

#A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

#The present invention relates to the field of document management, and more particularly to the field of document management in space and time.

#Effective management and organization of electronic documents is important In environments where multiple types of documents are created at different times and reside at different locations, keeping track of these documents is difficult. As documents are created, modified, and transferred among multiple users and locations, it becomes important to provide a user with the capability to browse and access document in different points in space and time.

#FIG. 1 is a diagram of a space time browser interface in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

#FIG. 2 is a diagram of a space time browser interface displaying a workspace in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

#FIG. 3 is a diagram of a space time browser interface displaying text documents in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

#The present invention provides a system for browsing and accessing multiple types of electronic content in real space and time. In one embodiment, a user may interact with a space time browser by moving a space indicator along a time line to perform inquiries. Each document in the browser has a time and space attribute. When the space indicator is located at a point in time that matches the space and time attributes document, the document is highlighted and a user may access the document. In one embodiment, a visual indicator representing a relevancy score is used to provide information regarding the proximity of a document to a selected space and time. The relevancy score may also be used to offset uncertainties inherent in location tracking systems. In one embodiment of the present invention, a document window is provided to display documents located at a selected point in space and time. Visual indicators associated with the documents in the document window may represent the time and space location of each document.

#A space time browser in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention includes a content location window and a document window. The content location window displays the location of content in space and time. The document window allows a user to view the content in more detail.

#The content location window may include a time indicator and a space indicator. In one embodiment of the present invention, the time indicator includes a time line. In this embodiment, the time line and space indicator may comprise a three dimensional grid. In one implementation of the grid, space may be represented in a two dimensional manner and time may be represented linearly. In one embodiment, time may be represented by a vertical or z axis and space may be represented by a horizontal plane on the x and y axis. The z axis depicting time may be shown in units of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or some other unit of time. In one embodiment, the units to depict time may be chosen by a user. A current time indicator may be provided that indicates the current time on the time axis. The current time indicator may appear as either a digital clock or analog clock, a highlighted cross hair or some other indicator located on the time axis, or as some other visual representation of the time. In one embodiment, the current time indicator is represented as a pointer or arrow pointing to the current time on a time axis.