U.S. patent application number 10/218755 was filed with the patent office on 2002-12-12 for graphical user interface.
This patent application is currently assigned to Cerebrus Solutions Limited. Invention is credited to Bushell, Alexander James, Giles, David Peter, Hobson, Philip William, Hope, Jon, Jolliffe, Graham John, Tweedie, Lisa Anne.
Application Number | 20020186261 10/218755 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 23353354 |
Filed Date | 2002-12-12 |
United States Patent
Application |
20020186261 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Giles, David Peter ; et
al. |
December 12, 2002 |
Graphical user interface
Abstract
A graphical user interface (GUI) is described which enables
hierarchically structured information to be presented and analyzed
by a user quickly and easily. In one example, the GUI is for a
fraud management system and the information is about "alarms". Each
alarm is an indicator of potential fraud and several types of alarm
are presented, where the type of an alarm depends on the method of
obtaining that alarm. The types of alarm are arranged in a
hierarchical structure and a representation of the hierarchical
structure is displayed on a display screen. A user is able to
select one or more parts of the hierarchical structure in order to
display information about all the alarms of the selected types and
subtypes. This enables the user to quickly and easily view required
information without the need to make many user actions and
selections. The representation of the hierarchical structure may be
tailored by the user. This is done by collapsing or expanding parts
of the hierarchical representation.
Inventors: |
Giles, David Peter; (Harlow,
GB) ; Tweedie, Lisa Anne; (Maidenhead, GB) ;
Jolliffe, Graham John; (Stebbing Great Dunmow, GB) ;
Hope, Jon; (Radwinter, GB) ; Bushell, Alexander
James; (Harlow, GB) ; Hobson, Philip William;
(Bishops Stortford, GB) |
Correspondence
Address: |
FOLEY HOAG LLP
PATENT GROUP, WORLD TRADE CENTER WEST
155 SEAPORT BOULEVARD
BOSTON
MA
02110-2600
US
|
Assignee: |
Cerebrus Solutions Limited
Astra House, Edinburgh Way
Harlow
GB
CM20 2BN
|
Family ID: |
23353354 |
Appl. No.: |
10/218755 |
Filed: |
August 14, 2002 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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10218755 |
Aug 14, 2002 |
|
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09345068 |
Jun 30, 1999 |
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6437812 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
715/853 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 3/0481
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
345/853 |
International
Class: |
G09G 005/00 |
Claims
1. A method of displaying hierarchically structured information,
the hierarchy having at least two levels, the method comprising:
displaying a first representation of at least part of the
hierarchy; receiving a first user input associated with the first
representation to make a first selection of at least part of the
hierarchy, at a given one of the levels in the hierarchy; in
response to the first selection, displaying information located
within the first selected part of the hierarchy, including
information located two or more levels below the level of the first
selection; and, displaying a second representation of at least part
of the hierarchy, the second representation being one of:
independent of the first representation, and inclusive of at least
some information having a different format than information
displayed in the first representation.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying information located
within the first selected part of the hierarchy comprises:
displaying information having a common format.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying information located
within the first selected part of the hierarchy comprises:
displaying information from a fraud management system.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying information located
within the first selected part of the hierarchy comprises:
displaying information located at all levels below the level of the
first selection.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying information located
within the first selected part of the hierarchy comprises:
displaying information located at multiple different levels.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a second
user input associated with the first representation to make a
second selection of at least part of the hierarchy, at a given one
of the levels in the hierarchy; and, in response to the second
selection, displaying information located within the second
selected part of the hierarchy, including information located two
or more levels below the level of the second selection.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a second
user input associated with the second representation to make a
second selection of at least part of the hierarchy, at a given one
of the levels in the hierarchy; and, in response to the second
selection, displaying information located within the second
selected part of the hierarchy, including information located two
or more levels below the level of the second selection.
8. A processor program for displaying hierarchically structured
information, the hierarchy having at least two levels, the
processor program stored on a processor-readable medium and
including instructions to cause a processor to: display a first
representation of at least part of the hierarchy; receive a first
user input associated with the first representation to make a first
selection of at least part of the hierarchy at a given one of the
levels in the hierarchy; in response to the first selection,
display information located within the first selected part of the
hierarchy, including information located two or more levels below
the level of the first selection; and, display a second
representation of at least part of the hierarchy, the second
representation being one of: independent of the first
representation, and inclusive of at least some information having a
different format than the first representation.
9. The processor program of claim 8, wherein the instructions to
cause a processor to display information located within the first
selected part of the hierarchy comprise instructions to cause a
processor to: display information having a common format.
10. The processor program of claim 8, wherein the instructions to
cause a processor to display information located within the first
selected part of the hierarchy comprise instructions to cause a
processor to: display information from a fraud management
system.
11. The processor program of claim 8, wherein the instructions to
cause a processor to display information located within the first
selected part of the hierarchy comprise instructions to cause a
processor to: display information located at all levels below the
level of the first selection.
12. The processor program of claim 8, wherein the instructions to
cause a processor to display information located within the first
selected part of the hierarchy comprise instructions to cause a
processor to: display information located at multiple different
levels.
13. The processor program of claim 8, further comprising
instructions to cause a processor to: receive a second user input
associated with the first representation to make a second selection
of at least part of the hierarchy, at a given one of the levels in
the hierarchy; and, in response to the second selection, display
information located within the second selected part of the
hierarchy, including information located two or more levels below
the level of the second selection.
14. The processor program of claim 8, further comprising
instructions to cause a processor to: receive a second user input
associated with the second representation to make a second
selection of at least part of the hierarchy, at a given one of the
levels in the hierarchy; and, in response to the second selection,
display information located within the second selected part of the
hierarchy, including information located two or more levels below
the level of the second selection.
15. A graphical user interface comprising: a display; a user input
means; and, software for displaying hierarchically structured
information on the display, the hierarchy having at least two
levels, the software able to: display a first representation of at
least part of the hierarchy; receive, from the user input means, a
first user input associated with the first representation to make a
first selection of at least part of the hierarchy, at a given one
of the levels in the hierarchy; in response to the first selection,
display information located within the first selected part of the
hierarchy, including information located two or more levels below
the level of the first selection; and, display a second
representation of at least part of the hierarchy, the second
representation being one of: independent of the first
representation, and inclusive of at least some information having a
different format than information displayed in the first
representation.
16. The graphical user interface of claim 15, wherein the software
to display information located within the first selected part of
the hierarchy comprises software to: display information having a
common format.
17. The graphical user interface of claim 15, wherein the software
to display information located within the first selected part of
the hierarchy comprises software to: display information from a
fraud management system.
18. The graphical user interface of claim 15, wherein the software
to display information located within the first selected part of
the hierarchy comprises software to: display information located at
all levels below the level of the first selection.
19. The graphical user interface of claim 15, wherein the software
to display information located within the first selected part of
the hierarchy comprises software to: display information located at
multiple different levels.
20. The graphical user interface of claim 15, wherein the software
is further able to: receive, from the user input means, a second
user input associated with the first representation to make a
second selection of at least part of the hierarchy, at a given one
of the levels in the hierarchy; and, in response to the second
selection, display information located within the second selected
part of the hierarchy, including information located two or more
levels below the level of the second selection.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] This invention relates to a graphical user interface (GUI)
and in particular, but not limited to a GUI for a fraud management
system.
[0003] 2. Description of the Prior Art
[0004] A GUI provides a means by which a user can control an
apparatus such as a computer system. The GUI is typically also the
means by which information about or from the apparatus is presented
to the user.
[0005] A particular problem for GUIs involves providing an
interface which can present large amounts of information to a user
in such a way that the user can quickly and easily obtain the
required information. The GUI should be easy to learn and flexible
in order that a user may "tailor" displays to meet particular
requirements. These problems occur particularly where the
information to be presented is of several types which can be
organised into a hierarchical structure.
[0006] The GUIs provided as part of Microsoft Outlook (trade mark)
and Microsoft Windows Explorer (trade mark) have attempted to
address these problems by presenting displays which illustrate the
hierarchical structure of stored information. For example, in
Microsoft Windows Explorer a display of icons is presented in a
"tree" structure form where the leaves of the tree represent
individual documents and branches of the tree represent folders for
containing documents. However, when a user selects an icon
representing a branch of the tree, information about each leaf of
the tree stemming from that branch is not necessarily presented. In
order for the user to view information about all documents at that
level and below in the hierarchy several key presses or other user
actions are required. This is time consuming and repetitive for the
user and can lead to novice users being unable to find the
information that they require. A similar problem is encountered
with Microsoft Outlook.
[0007] Fraud management systems are typically used to analyse data
about events such as credit card transactions or telephone calls,
in order to detect potentially fraudulent events. These potentially
fraudulent events are identified for example using rule based
methods, neural networks, or other suitable techniques. Often a
combination of different techniques are used and the results
compared. This leads to the situation where a given event may be
detected as potentially fraudulent using several different methods
within a fraud management system and several different "alarms" or
"alerts" are raised to notify an operator of the fraud management
system. Several tens of different methods may be used to identify
potentially fraudulent events especially for telecoms fraud. For
example, particular situations may be identified as potentially
fraudulent such as if the total cost of calls rapidly increases on
a particular customer account, or if simultaneous calls occur from
the same customer account (this is hot possible under normal
circumstances). This means that the number of types of "alarms" or
"alerts" is great. As well as this the number of instances of
alarms can be large especially because telecoms fraud such as
mobile telephone fraud is a growing problem.
[0008] The operator of a fraud management system is thus provided
with many "alarms" as outputs from the system and needs to analyse
these and decide what action to take. For example, one or more
"alarmed" events such as telephone calls may be related in that
they are all calls to the same destinations, or are all calls to
one another. Once an account that is being used fraudulently has
been identified the owner, who may well be aware of this, is
typically contacted and provided with a new account. Once a
fraudulent account has been identified action needs to be taken
quickly in order to minimise any losses incurred.
[0009] It is therefore important for a GUI to be provided to a
fraud management system which is simple and easy to use and yet
which is able to provide a user with all the functionality he
requires. Before now, such GUIs for fraud management systems have
not been able to cope well with the large number of potential
"alarms" and the large number of types of alarms. Typically a user
has had to move or change between different windows or displays
within a GUI in order to seek all the information he requires. This
is time consuming and complex making such GUIs difficult to learn
especially for novices in the field of fraud management systems.
Another problem with known GUIs for fraud management is that they
are inflexible and cannot easily be used by an operator to provide
a display tailored for a particular task or situation. Also,
different types of alarm have been treated differently and this has
meant that a user has had to make several "clicks" or selections in
order to reach the information required.
[0010] It is accordingly an object of the present invention to
provide an improved GUI which overcomes or at least mitigates one
or more of the problems noted above.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0011] According to the present invention there is provided a
method of controlling a display for displaying hierarchically
structured information, the hierarchy having at least two levels,
said method comprising the steps of:
[0012] (i) displaying a representation of at least part of the
hierarchy;
[0013] (ii) receiving user input to make a selection of part of the
hierarchy, at a given one of the levels in the hierarchy; and
[0014] (iii) displaying information located within the selected
part of the hierarchy including information located two or more
levels below the level of the selection, in response to the
selection.
[0015] A corresponding computer program stored on a computer
readable medium is provided, said computer program being for
controlling a display for displaying hierarchically structured
information, the hierarchy having at least two levels, said
computer program being arranged to control said display such
that:
[0016] (i) a representation of at least part of the hierarchy is
displayed;
[0017] (ii) a user input is received, to make a selection of part
of the hierarchy, at a given one of the levels in the hierarchy;
and
[0018] (iii) information is displayed within the selected part of
the hierarchy, including information located two or more levels
below the level of the selection, in response to the selection.
[0019] A corresponding graphical user interface is provided for
controlling a computer system, said graphical user interface
comprising:
[0020] (i) a display screen;
[0021] (ii) a user input means; and
[0022] (iii) a processor arranged to display hierarchically
structured information from the computer system on the display
screen, the hierarchy having at least two levels and said processor
being arranged to control the display of information on the display
screen by:
[0023] (i) displaying a representation of at least part of the
hierarchy;
[0024] (ii) receiving a user input to make a selection of part of
the hierarchy, at a given one of the levels in the hierarchy;
and
[0025] (iii) displaying information located within the selected
part of the hierarchy, including information located two or more
levels below the level of the selection, in response to the
selection.
[0026] This provides the advantage that an improved GUI is created.
The user is able to quickly and easily select particular parts of
hierarchically structured information without needing to make
several actions or selections. Use of a hierarchical representation
enables the user to gain an overall view of the structure of the
items and to select required information from a single display
screen. For a given level in the hierarchy all information located
two or more levels below that level is presented as a result of a
single user action. The resulting GUI is simple to use and easy to
learn. The present invention also provides a fraud management
system comprising:
[0027] (i) a display screen;
[0028] (ii) user input means;
[0029] (iii) a processor arranged to display hierarchically
structured information from the fraud management system on the
display screen, said information comprising a plurality of alarms
each alarm being an indicator of potential fraud, said hierarchy
having at least two levels, said processor being arranged to
control the display of information on the display screen by:
[0030] (i) displaying a representation of at least part of the
hierarchy on the display screen;
[0031] (ii) receiving a user input to make a selection of part of
the hierarchy at a given one of the levels in the hierarchy;
and
[0032] (iii) displaying information located within the selected
part of the hierarchy, including information located two or more
levels below the level of the selection, in response to the
selection.
[0033] This provides the advantage that an improved GUI for a fraud
management system is created. The user is able to quickly and
easily select information about different alarms without needing to
make several actions or selections. Use of a hierarchical
representation enables the user to gain an overall view of the
structure of the alarms and to select required information from a
single display screen. For a given level in the hierarchy
information located two or more levels below is presented as a
result of a single user action. The resulting GUI is simple to use
and easy to learn.
[0034] According to another aspect of the present invention there
is provided a method of operating a display for displaying
hierarchically structured information, the hierarchy having at
least two levels, said method comprising the steps of:
[0035] (i) causing a representation of at least part of the
hierarchy to be displayed;
[0036] (ii) making a user input to select part of the hierarchy at
a given one of the levels in the hierarchy; and
[0037] (iii) causing information to be displayed within the
selected part of the hierarchy, including information located two
or more levels below the level of the selection, in response to the
selection.
[0038] This enables a user to quickly and easily operate a display
in order to obtain information that he or she requires without
having to make many user inputs.
[0039] Further benefits and advantages of the invention will become
apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description
given with reference to the accompanying drawings, which specify
and show preferred embodiments of the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0040] FIG. 1 shows an account manager display screen.
[0041] FIG. 2 shows the account manager display screen with an
account menu pulled down.
[0042] FIG. 3 shows an alarm manager display screen.
[0043] FIG. 4 shows the alarm manager display screen of FIG. 3 with
the absolute feature use alarm type expanded.
[0044] FIG. 5 shows the alarm manager display screen of FIG. 3 with
a "file" menu pulled down.
[0045] FIG. 6 shows the alarm manager display screen of FIG. 3 with
an "alarm type" menu pulled down and "all alarms" selected.
[0046] FIG. 7 shows the alarm manager display screen of FIG. 6 with
an "alarm" menu pulled down instead of the "alarm type" menu.
[0047] FIG. 8 shows the alarm manager display screen of FIG. 7 with
an alarm being validated as correct.
[0048] FIG. 9 shows the alarm manager display screen of FIG. 3 with
"behavioural alarms" selected.
[0049] FIG. 10 shows an alarm manager display screen which is split
into two parts.
[0050] FIG. 11 shows a fraud management system.
[0051] FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of steps for controlling the
display of information by a GUI.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0052] Embodiments of the present invention are described below by
way of example only. These examples represent the best ways of
putting the invention into practice that are currently known to the
Applicant although they are not the only ways in which this could
be achieved.
[0053] The term "alarm" is used to refer to a potentially
fraudulent event that has been identified as such by a fraud
management system.
[0054] The term "fraud management system" is used to refer to any
type of automated method that is suitable for analysing information
about events and identifying potentially fraudulent events.
[0055] The present invention relates to a graphical user interface
(GUI). The GUI provides a means by which a user or operator can
control a system such as a fraud management system. The GUI is the
means through which information is presented to the user and user
inputs are made to the fraud management system or other system in
order to control it. Any suitable system can be used. For example,
the mobile telephone fraud management system described in pending
U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 08/869,884; 08/872,332; and
08/888,361.
[0056] FIGS. 1 to 10 are examples of display screens produced by a
GUI for use with a fraud management system. FIGS. 1 to 2 are
examples of display screens from part of the GUI which is termed an
"account manager" and FIGS. 3 to 10 are examples of display screens
from another part of the GUI which is termed an "alarm
manager".
[0057] Account Manager
[0058] FIG. 1 shows an account manager display screen 10 which
contains a list of four accounts 11, 12, 13, 14 details for an
individual account being displayed in one row of a table-like
display. Two of these accounts 13, 14 have been allocated to a
particular user and this is indicated by the presence of an
identifier "albu" in a column 15 labelled "ID". The other accounts
11, 12 have no such entry in the ID column 15 and have not yet been
allocated to a particular user. Once an account has been allocated
to a particular user, other users are not able to modify the
records for this account.
[0059] The next column 16 contains an icon the colour of which
indicates whether the particular account has been verified as
fraudulent or not and a date column contains information about the
date on which any verification information was entered into the
fraud management system.
[0060] Another column 17 contains an icon which looks similar to a
case or folder. This indicates whether a case history is being
stored for the particular account by the fraud management
system.
[0061] For each account, an account identifier is displayed in
column 18. The account identifier is a three digit number or any
other suitable identifier, for example, which may be
non-numeric.
[0062] An icon 19 is used to indicated that a potential roamer
(which is an indicator of a type of fraudulent activity) has been
detected and the type of account is given in another column 20. For
example, a particular account may be a business account or an
account for a GSM phone.
[0063] A score is also given in column 21. This provides an
indication of priority and helps operators of the fraud management
system to decide which cases to take action for first. For each
account, icons are provided to indicate which types of alarm were
detected for that account. These icons are located under the "alarm
types" column 23.
[0064] At the top of the display a menu bar 24 is provided together
with a so called "tool bar" or bar of icons 25.
[0065] Once a user has deleted all alarms for a particular account,
information about that account on the account manager display
screen 10 is given in dotted text rather than solid text. Once the
screed is "refreshed" this dotted text is remove. For example, see
row 13. Also, a second table 26 or list of accounts is provided
towards the bottom of the display 10. This contains details of the
accounts allocated to a particular user, for example "albu" in the
example shown in FIG. 1. It is not essential to provide a second
table 26, but this is useful, especially when several users are
working using the account management display from separate
terminals of a networked computer system. Each particular user is
then provided with their own "working area" each of which are
formed by a second table 26.
[0066] The FILTER menu can be used from menu bar 24 in order to
filter out all accounts of a certain type or age and then the
remaining accounts are displayed in the first table-like display.
The format of the second table 26 is the same as for the first
table and is placed below but in register with the first table for
ease of comparison.
[0067] In order to view further details about an individual account
that account is selected using a "mouse", keyboard or other
selection means as is known in the art. For example, in FIG. 2,
account 14 has been selected and is shaded in colour as compared to
accounts 11 to 13. The ACCOUNT menu from menu bar 24 may then be
selected, as shown in FIG. 2, and the command ALARM MANAGER
activated. This results in an alarm manager display screen being
displayed as well as the account manager display 10.
[0068] Instead of using the ACCOUNT menu in this way to open the
alarm manager display, the user is also able to double click or
select account 14 in any other suitable way in order to achieve the
same effect.
[0069] Alarm Manager
[0070] FIG. 3 shows an example of an alarm manager display screen
30. This has a menu bar 31 and a toolbar 32 similar to those of the
account manager display screen 10. The column headings 33 from the
list or table of accounts in the account manager display is given,
together with the information about the selected account 14 from
the account manager window. This acts as a reference for the user
to enable him or her to quickly identify the account being
analysed. Details of when the account was first active, when it was
last active and when the first and last alarms were shown for it
are also given in the display.
[0071] The remaining part of the display is divided into two
portions or columns 34, 35. One column 35 is shown empty in FIG. 3
and is for displaying information about individual "alarms". The
other column 34 contains a display in the form of a tree structure
or other hierarchical structure. This displays a number of icons,
for different types of alarm and connects these together in a
hierarchical fashion. A different icon is used for each type of
alarm. At the base of the tree structure is an icon labelled ALL
ALARMS and opposite this a figure is displayed which indicates the
total number of alarms for the account 14 being analysed.
[0072] As discussed above, an alarm is a potentially fraudulent
event that has been identified as such by the fraud management
system. There are several different types of alarm according to the
method used to identify the potentially fraudulent event. For
example, potentially fraudulent events identified by a neural
network based method as termed "behavioural alarms" in the example
being discussed and potentially fraudulent events identified by
other methods are termed "first line defence" alarms. Thus for a
given event, several different alarms may be generated of different
types.
[0073] A hierarchy of alarms is formed by allocating some types of
alarms as being subtypes. For example, by creating the type
"behavioural alarms" all types of alarms which result from analysis
by a neural network based method become subtypes of the
"behavioural alarm" type; each of these subtypes then has supertype
which is the type "behavioural alarm". Various different forms of
hierarchy can be formed with subtypes being members of one or more
supertypes for example. The subtypes and supertypes form different
levels in the hierarchy and individual alarms which are contained
within a type comprise information within that type or level of the
hierarchy. Thus a hierarchy with only two levels comprises for
example a supertype "behavioural alarms" and its subtype "expected
alarms". Within the supertype "behavioural alarms" there may also
be a number of alarms which are not members of the type "expected
alarms". These alarms comprise information within the "behavioural
alarms" level. Within the subtype "expected alarms" there may be
one or more individual alarms which comprise information within the
"expected alarms" level.
[0074] In a preferred embodiment the hierarchy is a tree structure
where each subtype has only one direct supertype. Each individual
alarm can be thought of as a leaf on this tree.
[0075] In the case that the GUI is used for a system other than a
fraud management system any items of data that are of different
types may be used in place of the alarms. These items of data are
then formed into a hierarchy as described above for alarms. Any
information that is structured hierarchically can be used.
[0076] In previous GUIs for fraud management systems and other
systems it has not been possible for users to quickly and easily
view details of alarms or other items of different types
simultaneously on the same display, or to quickly change views to
show different parts of hierarchically structured information.
Typically this has involved several successive selection actions by
the user which are time consuming, repetitive and difficult to
learn by novice users of the GUI.
[0077] This problem is addressed in the present invention by
provision of a representation of at least part of a hierarchy on a
single display and allowing a user to find and present information
in the hierarchy by selecting a part or parts of the
representation. For example, FIG. 3 shows how a number of icons,
connected together to form a "tree", are displayed to represent the
hierarchical structure of alarm types.
[0078] When a part of the representation is selected, such as an
icon representing behavioural alarms, information about all members
of the behavioural alarms type, including members of its subtypes
is presented. That is, if a branch in the representation of the
tree structure is selected by a user, then information about all
the alarms which are leaves connected to that branch are displayed.
This is described in more detail below. However, it is also
possible to arrange the GUI such that when a part of the
representation is selected, such as an icon representing
behavioural alarms, information about all alarms that are two or
more levels below the level of the selection are presented.
Similarly, information about alarms that are from multiple
different levels below the level of the selection may be
presented.
[0079] When a branch in the representation of the tree structure is
selected by a user information within the selected part of the
hierarchy is displayed. The selected part of the hierarchy is the
branch and all subtypes and leaves connected to that branch.
[0080] Referring again to FIG. 3, connected directly to the ALL
ALARMS icon are two branches, one to a BEHAVIOURAL ALARM icon and
one to a FIRST LINE DEFENCE (FLD) alarms icon. As before, opposite
each icon a figure is displayed which indicates the total number of
alarms of the appropriate type that are associated with the account
14 being analysed. In the example given in FIG. 3 there are 3
behavioural alarms and 68 FLD alarms, giving a total of 71 which
tallies with the number given next to ALL ALARMS. Next to the
BEHAVIOURAL ALARMS icon a small minus sign is given. This indicates
that all the branches and leaves of the tree which stem from the
BEHAVIOURAL ALARMS icon are currently displayed. In this case these
include a FRAUD ALARMS icon and an EXPECTED ALARMS icon. These
icons also have numbers adjacent them which sum to give the number
of behavioural alarms (i.e. in this case 3).
[0081] The small minus sign may be selected by the user, by
clicking on it with a mouse for example, in order to collapse this
part of the display i.e. to hide the FRAUD ALARMS icon and EXPECTED
ALARMS icon. Once these icons are hidden the minus sign changes to
a + sign to indicate that some levels of the tree structure are
currently hidden from view. For example, next to the fraud alarms
icon a + sign is given indicating that there are different types of
fraud alarms which can be displayed.
[0082] One of the icons stemming from the FLD alarms icon is an
icon labelled ABSOLUTE FEATURE USE. The result of clicking on the +
sign next to this icon is illustrated in FIG. 4. Here six further
icons are displayed, all stemming from the ABSOLUTE FEATURE USE
icon and a minus sign is now given instead of a + sign next to the
ABSOLUTE FEATURE USE icon. Apart from this FIG. 4 is the same as
FIG. 3.
[0083] Thus it is possible for the user to collapse or expand parts
of the hierarchical representation in order to tailor that
representation to his or her requirements. This aids the user in
his or her search for required information. Also, because the
hierarchical representation is displayed on a single display screen
the user does not need to make repeated actions in order to open
new "windows" or change the display show new types of alarms. The
user is able to select parts of the hierarchical representation in
order to display information about the types of alarms that are
required. This reduces the number of selections and actions
required by the user in order to display required information; the
user is quickly and simply able to view the structure of the alarm
types from the hierarchical representation and this simplifies the
GUI and makes it easier to use.
[0084] FIG. 5 shows the commands 51 that are available when a file
menu is selected from the menu bar 31. These include the following
commands:
[0085] ACCOUNT MANAGER
[0086] CALL DETAILS QUERY
[0087] LAST ACTIVE BEHAVIOUR
[0088] ALLOCATE
[0089] UN-ALLOCATE
[0090] ACTION
[0091] EXPORT CASE
[0092] REMOVE CASE
[0093] HIGHLIGHT IN OTHER WINDOWS
[0094] PRINT
[0095] CLEAR ALL ALARMS
[0096] EXPAND ALL
[0097] COLLAPSE ALL
[0098] CLOSE
[0099] Of these the EXPAND ALL and COLLAPSE ALL commands are used
to change the hierarchical structure display in a manner so as to
show all super and subtypes or to hide all subtypes.
[0100] FIG. 6 shows the alarms window when a user has selected the
ALL ALARMS icon from the hierarchical representation. Once the user
selects this icon, for example, by using a mouse or other suitable
input device, then this icon is shaded to indicate that it has been
selected. In the example shown in FIG. 6 the display indicates that
71 ALL ALARMS are available for this customer account. Once the ALL
ALARMS icon has been selected information about each of these
alarms is displayed in the column 35 opposite the hierarchical
display. For each alarm, an icon is displayed in a column 62
labelled "ALARM" and these icons indicate the type of each alarm.
As well as this, a time stamp is given for each alarm, in another
column 63. The time stamp indicates the date and time at which the
alarm occurred.
[0101] FIG. 6 also shows the result of selecting the ALARM TYPE
menu from the menu bar 31. The commands available on this ALARM
TYPE menu include: EXPAND, COLLAPSE, CLEAR ALL ALARMS and
CONFIGURE.
[0102] FIG. 7 shows the result of selecting the ALARM menu from
menu bar 31. Once a particular alarm is selected in column 35, for
example, by the user clicking on an alarm using a mouse, then the
ALARM menu can be used to delete or clear this alarm using the
command CLEAR ALARM. Similarly the selected alarm can be validated
by activating the VALIDATE alarm from the ALARM menu. FIG. 8 shows
this in more detail. When the VALIDATE command is chosen, three
further options 80 are displayed. The user is able to select one of
these options to indicate whether the selected alarm 81 is CORRECT,
INCORRECT or whether the validation for that alarm should be
cleared (deleted). By choosing the BEHAVIOUR command from the ALARM
menu further information is displayed to enable the user to
investigate the behaviour of the individual alarm in more
detail.
[0103] For each alarm, information about the type of alarm and a
time stamp for that are alarm are available. However, for different
types of alarm, additional information is available according to
the type of alarm. For example, FIG. 9 illustrates the result of
selecting the BEHAVIOURAL ALARMS icon from the hierarchical display
in column 34. In the example shown in FIG. 9 three BEHAVIOURAL
ALARMS are present and information about these is presented in
column 35. Information for an individual alarm is presented in a
single row of a table-like display. The first column of the table
91 contains icons representing the type of each alarm. The next
column 92 gives the time stamps and another column 93 provides a
percentage value for each alarm, indicating the amount of certainty
that the fraud management system has assigned to that alarm.
Several further pieces of information are presented, again in a
table-like format 94.
[0104] In the case that a supertype is selected from the
hierarchical representation, a problem can arise if the information
to be presented for the individual alarms of the associated
subtypes is of incompatible formats. For example, in the case that
ALL ALARMS is selected, as illustrated in FIG. 6, information must
be presented about 3 behavioural alarms as well as the first line
defence alarms. The behavioural alarms have been obtained from a
neural network based fraud detector and the information associated
with these alarms is of a different amount, format and type from
that from say, the first line defence alarms. However, the display
in column 35 needs to present information about both these types of
alarms. In order to do this, information which has a common format
for all the types of alarms concerned is selected and presented.
This provides the advantage that the GUI is able to cope with
heterogeneous information about different types of alarms and which
has been obtained using different methods.
[0105] It is also possible for the user to select more than one
part of the hierarchical display at one time. For example, this is
required when the user desires to view information about say,
"expected alarms" and "overlapping calls alarms". In such a
situation, information which has a common format for all the types
of alarms concerned is selected and presented in the column 35. In
this way the user is effectively able to "mix and match" the types
of alarms for which information is presented on a single display
screen.
[0106] FIG. 10 illustrates the ability to divide or split the
display screen into two effectively independent parts or windows
100, 101. In each of these windows two columns are provided 105,
104, 103, 102 so that each window has the same format as the main
part of an alarm window 30 in FIG. 9. The display screen may be
split into more than two effectively independent parts or windows
in a similar way.
[0107] In each of the two windows, one of the columns 105, 103
contains a display of the hierarchical structure of alarm types.
However, these may be collapsed or expanded independently of one
another as a result of user inputs. When part of the hierarchical
structure is selected by the user, information about all alarms at
that part of the structure or below are displayed in the
corresponding other column 104, 102 in the same way as when the
display is not split.
[0108] As illustrated in FIG. 10 the user may select one type of
alarm from the upper window for example, "period 1 fraud alarms"
and enable information about these behavioural alarms to be
displayed in the upper window. At the same time, the user can
select another type of alarm from the lower window, for example,
"PRS, 8 hours" and display information about these first level
defence alarms in the lower window. In this case the problem of
different formats of information between the upper and lower window
is avoided and it is possible to present all the information.
[0109] The GUI can also be arranged to allow the "mix and match"
capability that is described above for both the upper and lower
windows.
[0110] The method described above for controlling the display of
hierarchically structured information by the GUI is preferably
implemented in the form of a computer program using conventional
programming techniques as are known in the art. FIG. 12 is a flow
diagram of the steps followed by the computer program. These
include displaying a representation of at least part of the
hierarchy on a display screen (box 1001 of FIG. 12). When a user
input is received, selecting part of the hierarchical
representation at a given level in the hierarchy (box 1002 of FIG.
12). Then information is displayed, within the selected part of the
hierarchy, including information located two or more levels below
the level of the selection, in response to the selection (box 1003
of FIG. 12).
[0111] FIG. 11 shows a fraud management system comprising:
[0112] (i) a display screen 150;
[0113] (ii) user input means 151; and
[0114] (iii) a processor 152 arranged to display hierarchically
structured information from the fraud management system on the
display screen, said information comprising a plurality of alarms
each alarm being an indicator of potential fraud, said processor
being arranged to control the display of information on the display
screen by:
[0115] (i) displaying a representation of at least part of the
hierarchy on the display screen;
[0116] (ii) receiving a user input to make a selection of part of
the hierarchy at a given on eof the levels in the hierarchy;
and
[0117] (iii) displaying information within the selected part of the
hierarchy, including information located two or more levels below
the level of the selection, in response to the selection.
[0118] The display screen may be of any suitable type such as a
computer screen. The user input device may be a computer mouse,
keyboard or other suitable input device as is known in the art. The
processor may be a conventional general purpose computer or any
suitable information processing apparatus.
[0119] A range of applications are within the scope of the
invention. These include situations in which it is required to
provide a graphical user interface for a fraud management system or
other system, and for displaying information in a hierarchical
form. Situations where it is required to minimise the number of
user actions required to select and display parts of the
hierarchical information and also within the scope of the
invention.
* * * * *