GUI State Synchronization Across Networked Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Consumers face difficulties in effectively managing and presenting various types of content, particularly television-related content, across multiple devices due to the proliferation of networked presentation devices and the complexity of content distribution systems, leading to challenges in maintaining a coherent user interface state.
Innovation Solution
A Content Management system with a graphical user interface that maintains a focused state based on user selections, displaying metadata information in a coordinated manner across multiple display areas, allowing users to manage content by filtering, sorting, and updating information in real-time, including features like time-based views, customizable filters, and search functions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If content is managed across multiple networked devices, then content availability and accessibility are improved, but interface state coherence and management complexity deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal interface state that functions across multiple devices (TV, PC, mobile devices). The GUI state including selected content, filters, and viewing preferences is synchronized and maintained consistently across different platforms, allowing the interface to serve multiple functions while maintaining coherence.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors and tracks the interface state across devices, providing feedback mechanisms that ensure consistency. When a user interacts with content on one device, the interface state is updated and reflected across other connected devices, maintaining coherence through real-time state synchronization.
2Loss of information
If detailed metadata information is displayed across multiple display areas, then information completeness is improved, but interface complexity and cognitive load increase
Solution Approach 1:
The interface is divided into multiple display areas or panes, each showing specific types of metadata information (e.g., content details, related items, playback controls). This segmentation allows comprehensive information display while organizing content into manageable sections that reduce cognitive load.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the interface are optimized for specific functions - some areas display detailed information while others provide quick controls or summaries. Each display area has a specialized quality or function tailored to its purpose, improving overall information presentation without uniformly increasing complexity across the entire interface.
Data Source
AI summary
A graphical user interface (“GUI”) for a content management system is provided, such as to present television program information and/or information associated with other forms of multimedia content. In some situations, the GUI displays various types of information about multiple pieces of content that are currently appropriate for display, and one or more users may make various types of selections that affect the information being displayed. In addition, in some situations various techniques are employed to maintain a state of the GUI that is focused on one or more current selections as changes occur, such as to coordinate information display between multiple distinct information panes or other view areas of the GUI, to alter the information to be displayed in the GUI based on a selected piece of content, and/or to enable identification of a selected piece of content from within a large number of pieces of content.