The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 23, 1999
Filed:
Apr. 21, 1997
Eduardo Sciammarella, New York, NY (US);
Franklin Servan-Schreiber, New York, NY (US);
Sony Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Sony Electronics, Inc., Park Ridge, NJ (US);
Abstract
Images representing search results are displayed on a screen of a computer system. The search results are responsive to a search in a database initiated by a user by entering a keyword or keywords via an input device. The images are displayed in such a way that an image corresponding to the highest matching value is the largest is size, while remaining matches are represented by images in direct proportion to their relevance to the keyword. In addition, the relevance of an image is indicated by its proximity to the keyword displayed on the screen: the closer the displayed image to the keyword, the more relevant the match represented by that image is to that keyword. This display operation is equivalent to two simultaneous searches with boolean operators 'OR' and 'AND'. A graphical squeegee may be dragged across images representing search results in order to filter the results based on a keyword. The squeegee is displayed as a vertical bar and is associated with a keyword. As the squeegee is moved across the screen, images relevant to the keyword are moved while remaining images are not moved.