Data display apparatus and data display method

Claim 2

Data display apparatus for displaying relationships between data sets in a group of data sets resulting from a query, the apparatus comprising: selecting means for selecting a target data set from the group of data sets obtaining means for obtaining similarities between pairs of unselected ones of the data sets in the group of data sets; and display control means for controlling positions for display of representations of the unselected data sets on a display screen, wherein the representations of the unselected data sets are positioned around a representation of the target data set on the screen based on similarity to the target data set, and wherein the representations of the unselected data sets are spaced in visual proximity to each other based on the similarities between the pairs of unselected data sets.

Claim 3

Data display apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the data sets represent images and said display control means is adapted to control the display means to cause the display screen to display the images as the representations thereof.

Claim 4

Data display apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the obtaining means is operable to obtain the similarities by obtaining similarity values representing the similarity between the target data set and the unselected data sets in the group, and wherein said display control means is adapted to control said display means to cause the display screen to display links between representations and to cause the display screen to display a link in a first style if the similarity value associated with the link is above the mean of the similarity values by a predetermined amount and to display a link in a second style if the similarity value associated with the link is below the mean of the similarity values by a predetermined amount.

Claim 5

Apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising: query receiving means for receiving an input query; and determining means for determining similarities between the input query and data representing the group of data sets.

Claim 6

Apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein said determining means comprises accessing means for accessing a database and comparing means for comparing the input query with the data representing the group of data sets to determine the similarities.

Claim 7

Apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein said query receiving means is arranged to receive a textual input query and said determining means is arranged to determine similarities between the textual input query and descriptive caption data representing the data sets.

Claim 8

Apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein said determining means comprises accessing means for accessing a database and comparing means for performing a natural language comparison between the input query and descriptive caption data representing the data sets to determine the similarities.

Claim 9

Apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein said comparing means is adapted to compare a meaning of the input query with a meaning of the caption data.

Claim 10

Apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein said display control means is adapted to select a representation of the data set determined to be most similar to the input query as a focal representation, and to control the display means to display representations of at least some others of the group of data sets around the focal representation at distances dependent upon the determined similarities.

Claim 11

Apparatus according to claim 4 , further comprising means for receiving a selection signal following selection of one of the representations as a new query, said display control means being responsive to the selection signal to control the display means to display the selected representation at a central position and to display the representations for the data sets most similar to the selected representation around the selected representation at distances in accordance with the similarities.

Claim 12

Apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said display control means is adapted to control said display means to display thumbnail images representing said data sets as the representations.

Claim 13

A data display method of displaying relationships between data sets in a group of data sets resulting from a query, said method comprising the steps of: accepting a selection of a target data set from the group of data sets; obtaining similarities between pairs of unselected ones of the data sets in the group of data sets; and controlling positions for display of representations of the unselected data sets on a display screen, wherein the representations of the unselected data sets are positioned around a representation of the target data set on the screen based on similarity to the target data set, and wherein the representations of the unselected data sets are spaced in visual proximity to each other based on the similarities between the pairs of unselected data sets.

Claim 14

A data display method of displaying relationships between data sets in a group of data sets resulting from a query, said method comprising the steps of: accepting a selection of a target data set from the group of data sets; obtaining similarities between pairs of unselected ones of the data sets in the group of data sets; and controlling positions for display of representations of the unselected data sets on a display screen, wherein the representations of the unselected data sets are positioned around a representation of the target data set on the screen based on similarity to the target data set, and wherein the representations of the unselected data sets are spaced in visual proximity to each other based on the similarities between the pairs of unselected data sets.

Claim 15

A data display method according to claim 12 , wherein the data sets represent images and the controlling step controls the display means to cause the display screen to display the images as the representations thereof.

Claim 16

A data display method according to claim 12 , wherein the similarities are determined by obtaining similarity values representing the similarity between the target data set and the unselected data sets in the group, and wherein the controlling step causes the display screen to display links between representations with a link being displayed in a first style if the similarity value associated with the link is above the mean of the similarity values by a predetermined amount and to display with a link being displayed in a second style if the similarity value associated with the link is below the mean of the similarity values by a predetermined amount.

Claim 17

A method according to claim 12 , further comprising the steps of: receiving an input query; and determining similarities between the input query and data representing the data sets.

Claim 18

A method according to claim 15 , wherein said determining step comprises the steps of accessing a database and comparing the input query with the data representing the data sets to determine the similarities.

Claim 19

A method according to claim 15 , wherein a textual input query is received in said input query receiving step, and similarities between the textual input query and descriptive caption data representing the data sets of are determined in said determining step.

Claim 20

A method according to claim 15 , wherein said the determining step comprises the steps of accessing the database and performing a natural language comparison between the input query and descriptive caption data representing each data set to determine the similarities.

Claim 21

A method according to claim 18 , wherein a meaning of the input query is compared with a meaning of the caption data in said performing step.

Claim 22

A method according to claim 15 , wherein in said controlling step, the representation of the data set determined to have the most similarity to the input query is selected as a focal representation, and wherein representations of at least some others of the group of data sets are displayed around the focal representation at distances dependent upon the determined similarities.

Claim 23

A method according to claim 15 , further comprising the steps of receiving a selection signal following the selection of one of the representations as a new query and, in response to the selection signal, controlling the display screen to display the selected representation at a central position and to display the representations for the data sets most similar to the selected representation around the selected representation at distances in accordance with the determined similarities.

Claim 24

A method according to claim 12 , wherein in said controlling step, the display screen is controlled to display thumbnail images of the data sets as the representations.

Claim 25

A computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions for controlling a processor to carry out a method according to claim 12 .

Claim 26

Data display apparatus for displaying relationships between a group of data sets, the apparatus comprising: selecting means for selecting a target data set from the group of data sets; determining means for determining a similarity between each of the other data sets in the group and the target data set; display control means for controlling display means to cause a display screen to display representations of the target data set and at least some of the other data sets in the group; and relative location determining means for determining the relative locations on the display screen of each of second representations representing the at least some of the data sets and a first representation representing the target data set, the relative location determining means being operable, for each of the second representations, to control an x coordinate and a y coordinate of the relative location of the second representation on the display screen in accordance with the similarity between the data set represented by that second representation and the target data set so as to produce on the display screen a two-dimensional arrangement, wherein in the two-dimensional arrangement with the second representations are positioned relative to each other based on similarity between the data sets represented by the second representations and are positioned around the first representation with the x and y coordinates of the relative location of each second representation being determined by the similarity between the data set represented by that second representation and the target data set.

Claim 27

Data display apparatus for displaying relationships between a group of data sets, the apparatus comprising: selecting means for selecting a target data set from the group of data sets; determining means for determining a similarity between each of the other data sets in the group and the target data set; display control means for controlling display means to cause a display screen to display representations of the target data set and at least some of the other data sets in the group; and relative location determining means for determining the relative locations on the display screen of each of second representations representing the at least some of the data sets and a first representation representing the target data set, the relative location determining means being operable, for each of the second representations, to control an x coordinate and a y coordinate of the relative location of the second representation on the display screen in accordance with the similarity between the data set represented by that second representation and the target data set so as to produce on the display screen a two-dimensional arrangement, wherein in the two-dimensional arrangement with the second representations are positioned relative to each other based on similarity between the data sets represented by the second representations and are positioned around the first representation with the x and y coordinates of the relative location of each second representation being determined by the similarity between the data set represented by that second representation and the target data set.

Claim 28

Data display apparatus according to claim 24 , wherein the data sets represent images and said display control means is adapted to control the display means to cause the display screen to display the images as the representations.

Claim 29

Data display apparatus according to claim 24 , wherein the relative location determining means is operable to determine the relative locations such that the representation representing the target data set is at a central focus of the representations on the display screen.

Claim 30

A data display method of displaying relationships between a group of data sets, said method comprising the steps of: selecting a target data set from the group of data sets; determining a similarity between each of the other data sets in the group and the target data set; controlling display means to cause a display screen to display representations of the target data set and at least some of the other data sets in the group; and determining the relative locations on the display screen of second representations representing the at least some of the data sets and a first representation representing the target data set by, for each of the second representations, controlling an x coordinate and a y coordinate of the relative location of the second representation on the display screen in accordance with the similarity between the data set represented by that second representation and the target data set so as to produce on the display screen a two-dimensional arrangement, wherein in the two-dimensional arrangement the second representations are positioned relative to each other based on similarity between the data sets represented by the second representations and are positioned around the first representation with the x and y coordinates of the relative location of each second representation being determined by the similarity between the data set represented by that second representation and the target data set.

Claim 31

A data display method of displaying relationships between a group of data sets, said method comprising the steps of: selecting a target data set from the group of data sets; determining a similarity between each of the other data sets in the group and the target data set; controlling display means to cause a display screen to display representations of the target data set and at least some of the other data sets in the group; and determining the relative locations on the display screen of second representations representing the at least some of the data sets and a first representation representing the target data set by, for each of the second representations, controlling an x coordinate and a y coordinate of the relative location of the second representation on the display screen in accordance with the similarity between the data set represented by that second representation and the target data set so as to produce on the display screen a two-dimensional arrangement, wherein in the two-dimensional arrangement the second representations are positioned relative to each other based on similarity between the data sets represented by the second representations and are positioned around the first representation with the x and y coordinates of the relative location of each second representation being determined by the similarity between the data set represented by that second representation and the target data set.

Claim 32

A data display method according to claim 27 , wherein the relative locations are determined such that the representation representing the target data set is at a central focus of the representations on the display screen.