Animated Timeline Centering for Touch Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Classical navigable timelines are not touch-screen friendly, requiring users to drag icons to set time or time spans, which is difficult, and often the selected time is not centered, leading to uneven annotation visibility.
Innovation Solution
A system that automatically centers a selected tick mark on a timeline by animating the timeline shift to the center during a predetermined time period, allowing users to click on a time mark for centering, with animated movement ensuring user awareness of the shift.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If users drag window start and stop time indicators to select a time period, then the timeline can be navigated, but the operation becomes complex and not touch-screen friendly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the time selection functionality from the traditional drag-based interface and implements a simplified click-to-select mechanism. Users can now click on a single time point to automatically center the time window, eliminating the need to manually drag both start and stop indicators. This reduces the operational complexity while maintaining navigation functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The system automatically centers the time window on the selected time point without requiring user intervention to adjust window boundaries. The automated centering feature performs the positioning service itself, reducing the number of manual operations needed and improving ease of use on touch screens.
2Device complexity
If the timeline remains stationary with current time at the right end, then the display is simple, but the selected time is not centered leading to uneven annotation visibility
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces dynamic animation to the timeline display, allowing it to automatically shift and center on the selected time point. This dynamic behavior ensures that annotations are evenly distributed around the selected time, improving visibility and information presentation without significantly increasing display complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the static mechanical timeline structure with an animated, dynamically repositionable timeline. The animated shift provides visual feedback and ensures proper centering of the selected time, improving annotation visibility while maintaining a relatively simple display implementation through software-based animation.
3Measurement precision
If users click to select a time mark, then the selection is precise, but the timeline does not automatically center creating uneven viewing of annotations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the static timeline display with an animated timeline that automatically shifts to center on the selected time mark. This animated feedback enhances the user experience by providing visual confirmation of the selection and automatic centering, improving ease of operation while maintaining precise time selection capability.
Data Source
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AI summary
When presenting information to a user via a display, an animated timeline (18) is provided on which a user selects a tick mark (74, 92) representing a time on the timeline (18), to view data collected at that time. A time window (72) of a predetermined width (e.g., an hour) is centered on the selected tick mark (74, 92), and the timeline (18) is then animated as it shifts the selected tick mark (74, 92) to the center of the timeline (18). Data (e.g., images, measured parameters, etc.) corresponding to the time window is identified (e.g., via timestamp information) and presented to the user on a display along with the timeline (18).