Surveillance Alert Aggregation for Zoomable Event Displays
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional surveillance tools in high-performance, high-transaction volume computer systems, such as electronic securities trading systems, struggle to effectively display alerts in a manner that allows operators to quickly understand and respond to abnormal events due to crowded displays and the need for manual drill-down operations, which is exacerbated by increasing transaction speeds and volumes.
Innovation Solution
A user interface system that aggregates and displays alert indicators on a graph, allowing users to zoom in and out to disaggregate or aggregate alerts based on time intervals, providing clear context and enabling efficient response to events.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If conventional surveillance tools display all alerts individually as they occur, then complete alert information is provided to operators, but the display becomes crowded and operators cannot quickly assess the situation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple individual alert indicators into a single aggregated alert indicator when multiple alerts occur within the same time interval. This merging reduces the number of discrete elements on the display from potentially dozens of individual alerts to a manageable number of aggregated indicators, allowing operators to quickly assess the overall situation without being overwhelmed by visual clutter, while still preserving complete alert information through the aggregation structure that can be drilled down into when needed.
2Loss of information
If operators use manual drill-down operations to obtain clarity on alert details, then comprehensive alert context is available, but response time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary aggregation of alerts by time interval before display, organizing alert data into structured groups that are ready for efficient presentation. This preliminary organization allows the system to present aggregated alert information immediately without requiring operators to perform time-consuming manual drill-down operations, as the alerts are pre-organized in a hierarchy that can be navigated efficiently or presented in summary form depending on operational needs.
3Loss of information
If the system displays detailed information for each alert, then operators have sufficient context to respond, but the interface complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments alert information display into hierarchical levels: aggregated alert indicators at the overview level that show summary information, and detailed alert information available at subsequent levels through controlled drill-down operations. This segmentation allows the interface to present simplified aggregated views that reduce complexity, while still providing access to complete detailed information when operators need it, thereby managing interface complexity without sacrificing information completeness.
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure describes a surveillance alert management user interface that automatically and dynamically aggregates alert information to provide enhanced capabilities in responding to such alerts. In one example, responsive to a first user input indicating zooming in on an indicated time interval that includes a first time sub-interval, a plurality of alert indicators is displayed instead of an aggregated alert indicator on a zoomed-in graph, where respective alert indicators of the plurality of alert indicators are correlated to respective second time sub-intervals within the first time sub-interval.