Dynamic Category Reconfiguration for Event Selection Interfaces
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Solution Overview
Problem
User interfaces for recordable event recorders, such as digital video recorders, are often complex, leading to user frustration and errors when selecting television shows to record, as users must search through large lists without intuitive categorization, resulting in missed programs and incorrect settings.
Innovation Solution
A graphical user interface that organizes recordable events using categories and sub-categories, allowing users to navigate and select events by easily understood descriptors, with the ability to reconfigure these categories and sub-categories dynamically without updating hardware or software, facilitating user-friendly selection and recording.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a plain list of recordable events is displayed without categorization, then the device complexity is reduced, but the ease of operation deteriorates as users must search through large lists manually
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the large list of recordable events into multiple categories (e.g., sports, news, entertainment) and further segments each category into sub-categories. This hierarchical segmentation allows users to navigate to specific event types systematically rather than searching through an undifferentiated list, thereby improving ease of operation while managing interface complexity through organized structure.
2Ease of operation
If categories and sub-categories are added to organize recordable events, then the ease of operation improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a nested hierarchical structure where categories contain sub-categories, which in turn contain specific recordable events. This nesting approach allows the interface to present information at multiple levels of detail, enabling users to navigate from broad categories to specific events systematically, thereby improving ease of operation while managing complexity through progressive disclosure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a categorical dimension to the organization of recordable events, transforming a one-dimensional list into a multi-dimensional hierarchical structure. This dimensional change allows users to navigate events through multiple pathways (by category, by sub-category, or by specific event), improving ease of operation while the systematic structure helps manage interface complexity.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the category structure is made static and fixed, then the device complexity is reduced, but the adaptability deteriorates when new event types need to be added
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic category structure that can be modified, added to, and reconfigured without requiring system updates or hardware changes. The hierarchical category system is designed to be flexible, allowing users to create new categories and sub-categories as needed, thereby improving adaptability while the modular design helps manage configuration complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and system for selection of recordable events from among a set of recordable events, based on categories and sub-categories, that cumulatively describe a substantial portion of the entire set of recordable events. After receiving a first set of categories, and first sets of sub-categories corresponding to the first set of categories, at a device, the device is configured to use the first set of categories and the first set of sub-categories, to guide a user in selecting a series of recordable events to experience and/or record. Thereafter, the device receives a second set of categories and respective second sets of sub-categories that correspond to the categories of the second set of categories, and the device responsively configures itself to use the second set of categories and the second sets of sub-categories, to guide a user in selecting a series of recordable events to experience and/or record.