U.S. patent application number 13/234026 was filed with the patent office on 2012-01-26 for document stream operating system.
This patent application is currently assigned to MIRROR WORLDS, LLC. Invention is credited to Eric FREEMAN, David H. Gelernter.
Application Number | 20120023400 13/234026 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 24701909 |
Filed Date | 2012-01-26 |
United States Patent
Application |
20120023400 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
FREEMAN; Eric ; et
al. |
January 26, 2012 |
DOCUMENT STREAM OPERATING SYSTEM
Abstract
A document stream operating system and method is disclosed in
which: (1) documents are stored in one or more chronologically
ordered streams; (2) the location and nature of file storage is
transparent to the user; (3) information is organized as needed
instead of at the time the document is created; (4) sophisticated
logic is provided for summarizing a large group of related
documents at the time a user wants a concise overview; and (5)
archiving is automatic. The documents can include text, pictures,
animations, software programs or any other type of data.
Inventors: |
FREEMAN; Eric; (Branford,
CT) ; Gelernter; David H.; (Woodbridge, CT) |
Assignee: |
MIRROR WORLDS, LLC
Tyler
TX
|
Family ID: |
24701909 |
Appl. No.: |
13/234026 |
Filed: |
September 15, 2011 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
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Patent Number |
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12049247 |
Mar 14, 2008 |
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13234026 |
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11607099 |
Dec 1, 2006 |
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12049247 |
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10834561 |
Apr 27, 2004 |
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11607099 |
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10397752 |
Mar 26, 2003 |
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10834561 |
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09398611 |
Sep 17, 1999 |
6638313 |
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10397752 |
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08673255 |
Jun 28, 1996 |
6006227 |
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09398611 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
715/273 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 16/93 20190101;
Y10S 707/99943 20130101; Y10S 707/99937 20130101; G06F 16/168
20190101; G06F 16/192 20190101; Y10S 707/914 20130101; Y10S 707/917
20130101; Y10S 707/916 20130101; G06F 16/30 20190101; Y10S
707/99932 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
715/273 |
International
Class: |
G06F 17/20 20060101
G06F017/20; G06F 17/30 20060101 G06F017/30 |
Claims
1-12. (canceled)
13. A system for managing a plurality of documents from a plurality
of different applications in a plurality of diverse formats
comprising: a document organizing facility receiving said plurality
of documents created by said plurality of diverse applications in
said plurality of diverse formats, wherein said document organizing
facility associates respective selected indicators with one or more
of said received documents, stores said one or more documents and
said indicators for selective retrieval, and creates information
specifying one or more glance views and one or more document
representations for respective ones of said one or more documents;
a display facility displaying at one time only a subset of said
documents; said display facility responding to a selection of said
one or more documents by a user wherein said selection is performed
by the user by a sliding operation; and said display facility
further displaying one or more of said glance views corresponding
to said selected documents; and said display facility displays said
documents in an order consistent with said indicators such that a
document of current interest to a user is displayed more
prominently than other concurrently displayed documents.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to an operating system in
which documents are stored in a chronologically ordered "stream".
In other words, that is, as each document is presented to the
operating system, the document is placed according to a time
indicator in the sequence of documents already stored relative to
the time indicators of the stored documents.
[0002] Within this application several publications are referenced
by arabic numerals within parentheses. Full citations for these and
other references may be found at the end of the specification
immediately preceding the claims. The disclosures of all of these
publications in their entireties are hereby incorporated by
reference into this application in order to more fully describe the
state of the art to which this invention pertains.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Conventional operating systems frequently confuse
inexperienced users because conventional operating systems are not
well suited to the needs of most users. For example, conventional
operating systems utilize separate applications which require file
and format translations. In addition, conventional operating
systems require the user to invent pointless names for files and to
construct organizational hierarchies that quickly become obsolete.
Named files are an invention of the 1950's and the hierarchical
directories are an invention of 1960's.
[0004] Some conventional operating systems employ a "desktop
metaphor" which attempts to simplify common file operations by
presenting the operations in the familiar language of the
paper-based world, that is, paper documents as files, folders as
directories, a trashcan for deletion, etc. Also, the paper-based
model is a rather poor basis for organizing information where the
state of the art is still a messy desktop and where one's choices
in creating new information paradigms is constrained [1].
[0005] Thus, conventional operating systems suffer from at least
the following disadvantages: (1) a file must be "named" when
created and often a location in which to store the file must be
indicated resulting in unneeded overhead; (2) users are required to
store new information in fixed categories, that is directories or
subdirectories, which are often an inadequate organizing device;
(3) archiving is not automatic; (4) little support for "reminding"
functions are provided; (5) accessibility and compatibility across
data platforms is not provided and (6) the historical context of a
document is lost because no tracking of where, why and how a
document evolves is performed.
[0006] "Naming" a file when created and choosing a location in
which to place the file is unneeded overhead: when a person grabs a
piece of paper and starts writing, no one demands that a name be
bestowed on the sheet or that a storage location be found. Online,
many filenames are not only pointless but useless for retrieval
purposes. Storage locations are effective only as long as the user
remembers them.
[0007] Data archiving is an area where conventional electronic
systems perform poorly compared to paper-based systems. Paper-based
systems are first and foremost archiving systems, yet data
archiving is difficult in conventional desktop systems. Often,
users throw out old data rather than undertaking the task of
archiving and remembering how to get the data back. If archiving
and retrieval of documents is convenient, old information could be
reused more often.
[0008] Reminding is a critical function of computer-based systems
[2] [3], yet current systems supply little or no support for this
function. Users are forced either to use location on their
graphical desktops as reminding cues or to use add-on applications
such as calendar managers.
[0009] A solution to these disadvantages is to use a document
stream operating system. One such system is outlined in a 1994
article [4]. However, this article fails to address many of the
disadvantages of conventional operating systems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0010] One object of the present invention is to provide a document
stream operating system and method which solves many, if not all,
of the disadvantages of conventional operating systems.
[0011] Another object of the present invention is to provide a
document stream operating system in which documents are stored in
one or more chronologically ordered streams.
[0012] An additional object of the present invention is to provide
an operating system in which the location and nature of file
storage is transparent to the user, for example, the storage of the
files is handled automatically and file names are only used if a
user chooses to invent such names.
[0013] A further object of the present invention is to provide an
operating system which takes advantage of the nature of electronic
documents. For example, a conventional paper document can only be
accessed in one place, but electronic documents can be accessed
from multiple locations.
[0014] Another object of the present invention is to organize
information as needed instead of at the time the document is
created. For example, streams may be created on demand and
documents may belong to as many streams as seems reasonable or to
none.
[0015] An additional object of the present invention is to provide
an operating system in which archiving is automatic.
[0016] A further object of the present invention is to provide an
operating system with sophisticated logic for summarizing or
compressing a large group of related documents when the user wants
a concise overview. In addition, this summarizing can include
pictures, sounds and/or animations. Also, no matter how many
documents fall into a given category, the operating system is
capable of presenting an overview in a form so that all the
documents are accessible from a single screen.
[0017] Also, an object of the present operating system is to make
"reminding" convenient.
[0018] Another object of the present invention is to provide an
operating system in which personal data is widely accessible
anywhere and compatibility across platforms is automatic.
Accordingly, this invention provides that computers using the
operating system of the present invention need not be independent
data storage devices, but also act as "viewpoints" to data stored
and maintained on external systems such as the INTERNET. Thus, in
accordance with the present invention users can access their
personal document streams from any available platform such as a
UNIX machine, a Macintosh or IBM-compatible personal computer, a
personal digital assistant (PDA), or a set-top box via cable.
[0019] According to one embodiment of the invention a computer
program for organizing one or more data units is provided. The
computer program includes: (1) means for receiving one or more of
the data units, each of which is associated with one or more
chronological indicators; and (2) means for linking each of the
data units according to the chronological indicators to generate
one or more streams of data units. Other embodiments of the
invention also provide: (1) chronological indicators including
past, present, and future times; and (2) means for displaying the
streams, wherein respective indicia representing the data units are
displayed and each data unit includes textual data, video data,
audio data and/or multimedia data. The means for displaying the
streams may further include displaying selected segments of the
streams corresponding to selected intervals of time. The means for
receiving may further include means for receiving data units from
the Word Wide Web or from a client computer.
[0020] According to another embodiment of the invention, a method
of organizing one or more data units is provided including the
steps of: (1) receiving one or more data units, each of which is
associated with one or more chronological inventors; and (2)
linking each of the data units according to the chronological
indicators to generate one or more streams of data units. In other
embodiments, the chronological indicators may include past,
present, and future times. The method may further include the steps
of: (1) displaying the streams, wherein respective indicia
represent each data unit and each of the data units may be textual
data, video data, audio data and/or multimedia data. The step of
displaying the streams may further include the steps of: (1)
receiving from a user one or more values indicative of one or more
selected segments of the streams corresponding to selected
intervals of time; and (2) displaying the segments of the streams
corresponding to the selected intervals of time.
[0021] These and other advantages of the present invention will
become apparent from the detailed description accompanying the
claims and the attached figures.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0022] FIG. 1 shows a viewport in one embodiment of the present
invention;
[0023] FIG. 2 shows a substream menu in one embodiment of the
present invention;
[0024] FIG. 3 shows a list of summary types for the substream
chosen in FIG. 2 of the present invention;
[0025] FIG. 4 shows the time display in one embodiment of the
present invention;
[0026] FIG. 5 shows a calendar-based dialog box in one embodiment
of the present invention;
[0027] FIG. 6a shows a dialog box in connection with a phone call
in one embodiment of the present invention;
[0028] FIG. 6b shows a summary of phone calls in one embodiment of
the present invention;
[0029] FIG. 7 shows a phone call record dialog box in one
embodiment of the present invention;
[0030] FIG. 8a shows text data used by one embodiment of the
present invention; and
[0031] FIG. 8b shows the result of a summarize operation in one
embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0032] This invention is a new model and system for managing
personal electronic information which uses a time-ordered stream as
a storage model and stream filters to organize, locate, summarize
and monitor incoming information. Together, streams and filters
provide a unified framework that subsumes many separate desktop
applications to accomplish and handle personal communication,
scheduling, and search and retrieval tasks. One embodiment of the
present invention utilizes a machine-independent, client/server
open architecture so that users can continue to use the same
conventional document types, viewers and editors.
[0033] A "stream" according to the present invention is a
time-ordered sequence of documents that functions as a diary of a
person or an entity's electronic life. Every document created and
every document send to a person or entity is stored in a main
stream. The tail of a stream contains documents from the past, for
example starting with an electronic birth certificate or articles
of incorporation. Moving away from the tail and toward the present
and future, that is, toward head of the stream more recent
documents are found including papers in progress or new electronic
mail. A document can contain any type of data including but not
limited to pictures, correspondence, bills, movies, voice mail and
software programs. Moving beyond the present and into the future,
the stream contains documents allotted to future times and events,
such as, reminders, calendar items and to-do lists.
[0034] Time-based ordering is a natural guide to experience. Time
is the attribute that comes closest to a universal skeleton-key for
stored experience. Accordingly, streams add historical context to a
document collection with all documents eventually becoming
read-only, analogously as history becomes "set in stone". The
stream preserves the order and method of document creation. Also,
like a diary, a stream records evolving work, correspondence and
transactions because historical context can be crucial in an
organizational setting.
[0035] One embodiment of this invention allows for basic operations
to be perform on a stream: new, clone, transfer, find and
summarize.
[0036] Users create documents by means of the new and clone
operations. New creates a new, empty document and adds the document
to the main stream. Clone duplicates an existing document and adds
the duplicate to the main stream at a new time point. Documents can
also be created indirectly through the transfer operation. The
transfer operation copies a document from one stream to another
stream. Creation of a document if "transparent" because documents,
by default, are added to the at the present time point. Internally,
the document is identified by a time indication so no name is
required from the user for the document. Nevertheless, a user can
optionally name a document is desired.
[0037] Some streams can be organized on the fly with the find
operation. Find prompts for a search query, such as "all E-mail I
haven't responded to," or "all faxes I've sent to Schwartz" and
creates a substream. Substreams, unlike conventional, virtual or
fixed directories which only list filenames, present the user with
a stream "view" of a document collection. This view, according to
the present invention contains all documents that are relevant to
the search query. Also, unlike searches of conventional fixed
directories, the substream is generated by default from all the
documents in the main stream. Accordingly, individual substreams
may overlap, that is, contain some documents that are the same and
can be created and destroyed on the fly without affecting the main
stream or other substreams.
[0038] The find operation creates a substream of the main stream or
of another substream based on, for example, a boolean
attribute-and-keyword expression or a `chronological expression`,
for example, "my last letter to Schwartz". Also, substreams may
point to the future, for example, "my next appointment".
[0039] Once created, substreams operate dynamically, that is, if a
user allows a substream to persist, the substream will collect new
documents that match the search criteria as documents arrive from
outside the operating system or as the user creates the document.
This dynamic operation provides automatic monitoring of information
because the substream not only organizes the documents as received
but also filters for incoming information. For example, a substream
created with the query "find all documents created by other people"
would subsume a user's mailbox and automatically collect all
arriving mail from other users. A substream remains in existence
until destroyed by the user and acts as a filter by examining each
new document that enters the main stream.
[0040] Although a document may belong to any number of substreams,
the document also enters and remains on the main stream. A
substream, in other words, is a "subset" of the main stream
document collection. In other words, a way of looking at the main
stream so as to exclude certain documents temporarily.
[0041] The summarize operation "compresses" or "squish" a stream to
generate one or more overview documents. The content of an overview
document depends on the type of documents in the stream. For
instance, if the stream contains the daily closing prices of all
the stocks and mutual funds in a user's investment portfolio, the
overview documents may contain a chart displaying the historical
performance of particular securities and the user's net worth. As
another example, if the substream contains a list of tasks a user
needs to complete, the overview document might display a
prioritized "to-do" list. Thus, the summarize operation collapses a
stream into a summary document. This summary document is a "live"
document which is updated as additional documents are added to the
main stream.
[0042] The type of summary depends on the type of documents in the
substream. In one embodiment of the present invention at least one
general "squish" function is provided no matter which stream is to
be squished. Typically, however, the user will have a number of
different squishers to choose from, for example, one squisher might
produce a summary in words, while another squisher might produce a
graph. Also "custom squishers" may be supplied by third parties or
created by the user.
[0043] Another aspect of the invention is that applications execute
"inside" a stream document leaving any output in that document.
Thus, running an application is a variant of the new operation. For
example, to run a spreadsheet application such as Lotus 1-2-3, a
user creates a new document at the head of the main stream,
specifically, a "live" spreadsheet document. The application itself
is stored on the main stream, or located by means of a calling card
that points to another stream containing the application.
[0044] A stream has three main portions: past, present, and future.
The "present" portion of the stream holds "working documents",
which also includes the timepoint in the stream where new documents
are created and where incoming documents are placed. As documents
age and newer documents are added, older documents pass from the
user's view and enter the "past portion" where the documents are
eventually "archived". By disappearing from view old information is
automatically cleared away so the old information will not clutter
up the workspace. At some future point if documents in the past
portion are needed, such documents can be located with the find
operation even if the past document has already been archived.
[0045] The "future" portion of the stream allows documents to be
created in the future. Future creation is a natural method of
posting reminders, for example, meeting dates and scheduling
information. The system allows users to dial to the future by
selecting a future timepoint for a document. The present invention
keeps the document until that future time occurs. When the time of
documents timepoint arrives the reminder document is brought into
view and the document enters the present portion of the stream.
[0046] One embodiment of the present invention is implemented in a
client/server architecture running over the Internet. The server is
the workhorse of this embodiment handling one or more streams by
storing all main stream and substream documents. Each view of a
stream is implemented as a client of the server and provides the
user with a "viewpoint" interface to document collections, that is,
streams. The "look and feel" of the viewport may be different for
different computing platforms but each viewport should support the
basic operations.
[0047] One embodiment of the present invention implements a client
viewport using graphically based X Windows, another embodiment
implement a client viewport solely with text in standard ASCII
(American Standard Characters for Information Interchange) and yet
another embodiment implements a client viewport for the NEWTON
personal digital assistant (PDA). The X Windows viewport provides
the full range of functionalities including picture and movie
display. In contrast the text-only viewport has a mail-like
interface although all the basic operations are available. Also,
because the NEWTON PDA lacks substantial internal memory and relies
on slow external communications, that is low bandwidth, a minimal
stream-access method is provided.
[0048] The X Windows viewport embodiment is shown in FIG. 1. The
interface is based on a visual representation of the stream
metaphor 5. Users can slide the mouse pointer 10 over the document
representations to "glance" at each document, or use the scroll bar
20 in the lower left-hand corner to move through time, either into
the past or into the future portion of the stream.
[0049] Color and animation indicate important document features. A
red border in one embodiment means "unseen" and a blue border means
"writable". Open documents may be offset to the side to indicate
when the document is being edited. In this embodiment incoming
documents slide in from the left side and newly created documents
pop down from the top and push the steam backwards by one document
into the past.
[0050] External applications are used to view and edit documents
which the user can select by clicking on the documents graphical
representation. The external applications speed the learning
process significantly because new users can continue to use
familiar applications for example, conventional UNIX application
such as emacs, xv, and ghostview, to create and view documents
while using streams to organize and communicate the documents.
[0051] The X Windows interface prominently displays the basic
operations, that is, New 30, Clone 40, Xfer 50 (that is, transfer),
Find 60, and Summarize 70 as buttons and/or menus. As discussed
previously the New button creates a new document and adds the
document to the stream at the "present" timepoint. The Clone button
duplicates an existing document and places the copy in the stream.
The Xfer button first prompts the user for one or more mail
addresses and then forwards the selected document. The find
operation is supported through a text entry box 60 that allows the
user to enter a boolean search query which results in a new
substream being created and displayed. The summarize menu 70
generates a new document which displays information from documents
in a stream in a desired format, for example, a graph.
[0052] The X Windows interface of this document also provides
additional buttons. The Print button 80 copies a selected document
to a printer where documents may be either printed conventionally
or moved to a printer stream. A software agent which can be
associated with the stream forwards each new document to an
appropriate printer. The Freeze button 90 makes a document
read-only.
[0053] Pulldown menus are used to select documents from streams or
existing substreams, create summaries, initiate personal agents and
change the clock.
[0054] The Streams menu 110 allows the user to select from a list
of locally available streams.
[0055] FIG. 2 shows the Substreams menu 120 of one embodiment of
the present invention. This menu is divided into three sections.
The first section 130 contains a list of operations that can be
performed on substreams, for example, remove. The second section
140 contains one menu entry labeled "Your Lifestream", and causes
the viewport to display a user's main stream. The third section 150
lists all of the user's substreams. As indicated by this third
section, substreams can be created in an incremental fashion, that
is, one substream generated from another resulting in a nested set
of menus. In this example the nested menus were created by first
creating a substream "lifestreams and david" 160 from the main
stream and then creating two substreams from this substream,
"scenarios" and "ben" 170. Substream "scott" 180 was created from
the "scenarios" substream. Semantically this incremental
substreaming amounts to a boolean `and` of each new query with the
previous substream's query.
[0056] FIG. 3 shows the summarize menu 190 which lists the possible
summary types. Choosing any of these menu options creates a
substream summary and a new document containing the summary is
placed on the stream.
[0057] The Personal Agents menu 200 lists a number of available
software agent types. Personal software agents can be added to the
user interface in order to automate common tasks.
[0058] The embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4 always displays the
time in the upper right hand corner of the viewport interface. This
time display also acts as a "time" pull-down menu 190 that allows
the user to set the viewport time to the future or past via a
calendar-based dialog box as illustrated in FIG. 5. Setting the
viewport time causes the cursor to point to that timepoint position
in the stream such that all documents forward of that timepoint,
that is, towards the head of the stream have a future timestamp and
all documents behind that timepoint, that is, towards the tail,
have a past timestamp. As time progresses, this cursor moves
forward towards the head of the stream. When the cursor slips in
front of the present timepoint "future" documents are added to the
visible part of the stream in the viewpoint, just like new mail
arrives. The effect of setting the time to the future or past is to
reset the time-cursor temporarily to a fixed position designated by
the user. Normally the user interface displays all documents from
the past up to the time-cursor. Setting the time-cursor to the
future allows the user to see documents in the future part of the
stream. Creating a document in the future results in a document
with a future timestamp. Once the user is finished time-tripping,
the user can reset to the present time by selecting the "Set time
to present" menu option in the time menu.
[0059] In one embodiment of the present invention "browse cards"
100 are employed so that when the user touches a document in the
stream-display with the cursor, a browse card appears. The purpose
of the browse card is to help the user identify a document by
providing the user some idea of the document's contents in a small
window. The content of browse cards is an abbreviated version of a
document which as been compressed into an micro-document like an
index card. In one embodiment, the browse card creation operation
does header stripping so that the browse card displays the first
non-trivial words in a document. In another embodiment, complex
analysis is performed on the document contents so that `most
important` words, pictures and/or sounds are presented.
[0060] Another embodiment of the present invention provides
"calling cards" which represent or point to a stream or substream
Every stream has a calling card and the only way to reference a
stream is via this calling card. In this embodiment the find
operation performs as follows: (1) the user provides a search
query; (2) an appropriate substream is generated; (3) the
substream's calling card is generated; and (4) the new calling card
is deposited as a new document at the head of the main stream.
Every duplicated calling card bears on the face text, an icon or
both. In the case of the find operation, the new calling card is
marked with the argument supplied by the user for the search query,
for example "from: Schwartz and Lifestreams" or "last letter from
Piffel". As a default in this embodiment, the interface will
automatically display the new substream.
[0061] Another embodiment of the present invention allows documents
to be grouped explicitly into a substream. With this feature the
user marks, that is, selects all documents to be included in the
substream and groups the selected documents into a substream by
creating a new calling card. The new calling card comes equipped
with a system-created icon which is marked on all documents that
are part of the new stream and the user may add any other notation
to the face of the new calling card, for example, "these should be
merged together to produce the Zeppelin report."
[0062] In the embodiments with calling cards the "transfer"
operation takes two arguments: a document and a calling card so
that the document is copied onto the stream designated by the
calling card. The document may itself be a calling card and
depending on instructions from the user, either the calling card
itself or the stream designated by the calling card is copied onto
the new stream.
[0063] Each main stream in this embodiment has a calling card which
allows `inter-main stream` communication. To communicate a user
includes on the face of the calling card for the user's main stream
whatever information the user is willing to make public. Other
users wanting to send that electronic mail will need a copy of that
user's calling card, which might be, for example, "Rock Q. Public,
Blimp Mechanic, Passaic N.J."
[0064] To give only limited access to user's stream, a user
provides a copy of the calling card customized to provide the
desired access. Minimal access gives other users append-only
privileges, that is, user B can send user A mail, but cannot view
anything on user A's stream. Access restrictions beyond "minimal"
are stated in terms of substreams. In other words, a calling card
gives access to all documents contained in the specified substream
unless that document is also contained on one of specified excluded
substreams.
[0065] The present invention allows a stream document to contain
another stream, that is a `stream envelope`. A stream envelope is
equivalent to a `value` calling card versus the `reference` calling
cards discussed above. In other words, rather than point to another
stream with a calling card, the stream envelope contains a copy all
the documents from the other stream. For example, user A transfers
to user B a substream consisting of all Zeppelin-manual
correspondence which contains many documents. However, a single new
document appears on user B's stream: a stream envelope. The stream
envelope may be opened yielding the many documents of the forwarded
stream.
[0066] According to the present invention, a text-editor designed
specifically for stream A can treat a document as a stream of bytes
so that software agents designed to `ride` streams could ride
documents as well. Also, the stream find operation can scan the
streamed document and synchronization based on stream properties
can be applied to the streamed document.
[0067] Streams can be copied and combined into new streams, that
is, streams can be merged. For example, if a user acquires stream
segments from ten electronic newspapers and magazines all covering
the same one-month period, the segments can be merged in a sorted
order into a single combined stream.
[0068] Another feature of the present invention is a card gallery
which consists of some reasonable number of microdocuments, for
example twelve, arranged in such a way that each is always fully
visible on the viewport for example, in two columns of 6 each at
the right of the display. Each micro-document is a calling card or
a micro-browse-card (MBC) to a "regular" document on the stream or
in a squish. The micro browse card in the card gallery represent
documents a user has been working on. Whenever a user opens a
document or creates a substream or squish, the corresponding micro
browse card is added to the card gallery. A user can re-open the
document, squish or have the viewport display the substream, by
clicking on, or otherwise selecting, the corresponding micro browse
card.
[0069] The micro browse card is administered as a
least-recently-used cache, that is, new cards are dealt on top of
the least-recently-used existing card, however, users can override
this mechanism and place or lock a card in the gallery. For
example, a live squish can act as weather-station, appointment
calendar, stock ticker or other current-status reporter if the user
locks the micro browse card for the squish in the gallery.
[0070] Because a users' card gallery includes by default the
calling cards of streams the user has recently opened, the card
gallery acts, to the extent streams are used as Web sites, as a
World Wide Web "hot list."
[0071] In one embodiment of the present invention at least some
part of the stream is in the form of a receding stack of upright
rectangles, framed in such a way that only the top line of each
document is visible. A foreshortened viewing angle yields a view
that is approximately a right triangle, the bottom edge aligned
with the bottom of the display and the left edge aligned with the
display's left border.
[0072] In another embodiment of the inventive operating system a
`slide rule` bar display is provided which is labelled with the
endpoints of the stream, that is, the dates of the farthest-past
and farthest-future documents. The document density can be
illustrated, for example, by the amount of color saturation of the
bar at any point. This type of display aids the user because some
days, weeks, months or other time period have more associated
documents, some have fewer. The slide rule has a magnifier that the
user can slide via a mouse, for example up and down the bar. The
magnifier obscures the portion of the sliderule that lies beneath,
but the obscured segment is replaced by an enlarged view of the
small part of the stream starting at the point touched by the upper
edge of the magnifier or, some similar protocol for defining the
starting point of the magnified segment. By sliding the magnifier,
you change the part of the stream currently displayed in the main
perspective view.
[0073] In another embodiment of the present invention at least some
part of the stream is in the form of a conventional calendar month
display. With this display, the stream-segment associated with day
n appears as a list of document headers in n's calendar box.
[0074] To contemplate the future instead of the past, according to
one embodiment of the present invention, a user can reverse the
stream so that the head of the stream now appears in front, with
the nearest-future document immediately behind that document,
next-nearest behind that and so forth. The user then looks from the
present into the future so that furthest-away document in the
display equals furthest-away in future time.
[0075] All documents older than some date d may be moved by the
server from immediately-accessible storage to cheaper, long-term
storage. When a document is archived in this way, however, the
browse card of that document may remain available in
immediately-accessible storage, so that the archived document
appears in the regular way in the viewport. When a user opens an
archived document, the user may incur some delay as the server
locates and reloads the body of the document.
[0076] Automatic archiving is a feature of the standalone
embodiment and user-managed web site embodiment. In either
embodiment, the streams operating system monitors remaining disk
space and when available space is low, the operating system asks
the user to pop in some diskettes or other storage media. Similarly
when an archived document needs to be reloaded, the operating
system tells the user which diskettes or other storage media to
insert.
[0077] In another embodiment of the present invention a chat
feature is provided. If two users want to chat online in UNIX TALK
style: the user creates a new stream and each user focusses the
viewport on that new stream. To make a comment, a user pops a new
document on the stream head with the comment contained as text
inside the document. The stream synchronization properties allow
many users to manipulate a stream concurrently, and allow a user to
block at the end waiting for the arrival of a new document which
would mean in this case awaiting the next comment.
[0078] A chat stream by its nature provides: (1) permanent record
and (2) support for multiple parties to a conversation. A chat
stream is in this sense is a real-time bulletin board. In this
regard a network bulletin board may be stored in a stream
providing: (1) archived comments that can be searched and retrieved
using the standard streams operations; (2) synchronization
characteristics like a chat stream; and (3) a bulletin board that
can be located via the find operation.
[0079] In another embodiment of the present invention any software
agent with the necessary access can ride your stream. Therefore
streams can be the basis of groupware systems implemented for
example as a flock of agents. For example, when user A's wants to
schedule a meeting, a software agent departs from user A's stream
to visit the streams of each of the other intended participants.
Each user's stream lists the current appointments in the stream's
future portion, and each user also includes a document giving the
user's general availability in pre-arranged terms so that the
meeting-maker software agent can understand. When the software
agent finds an appropriate meeting time, the software agent posts a
document to each stream's future and creates a new stream for the
meeting itself. The software agent forwards the calling card of the
meeting stream to each participant. This new stream serves as a
chat stream on which the participants can discuss the meeting
beforehand, accumulate any material developed during the meeting
itself and persists when the meeting is over as a record and a
vehicle for post-meeting discussions.
[0080] In the following embodiments a stream naturally provides a
structure for storing technical an electronic versions of a
newspaper or magazine.
[0081] In addition, a mail-order firm might store its catalog in a
stream with each document describing one item. A top page can embed
calling cards as hyperlinks so that the streams pointed-to are
updated automatically by the persistent substream mechanism. Each
user can also reformat the catalog to taste by creating a substream
containing descriptions of whatever sort of object interests the
user.
[0082] In another embodiment of the present invention a phone
conversation is stored as a time-ordered sequence of spoken sounds
or as electronic representations. When two users want to have a
phone conversation, the users can use software such as a software
agent, that creates a new stream and hands each user the calling
card. Each user's `phone agent` tosses digitized representations of
speech frames onto the stream and grabs each new frame that
appears, turning each speech frame into sound. In this scheme,
phone and voicemail are integrated in the all-purpose stream
context and can be manipulated using the standard stream
operations.
[0083] Additionally, in another embodiment of the present invention
a television source can be stored as a time-ordered sequence of
sound-and-image frames. Such television information is an archive
as well as a realtime source and can be searched and substreamed. A
television set is merely a viewport. Also, scheduling information
can be stored in the television stream's future and tuning into a
television station only requires double-clicking on the appropriate
calling card. Similar embodiments can provide for radio stations,
music sources, etc.
[0084] A stream according to the present invention can be
controlled by a voice-interface as well as a computer and thereby
be accessed via a conventional phone. The voice interface would
allow: (1) the stream to be searched and manipulated; (2) new
objects to be installed; (3) objects to be transferred; and (4)
other capability.
[0085] The following embodiment discusses how the present invention
is used for electronic mail. To send a message, the user creates a
new document, for example by clicking on the New button and
composes the message using a favorite editor. After composition,
the message document is sent with a push of the Xfer button.
Similarly, existing documents are easily forwarded to other users,
or can be cloned and replied to. While all mail messages, both
incoming and outgoing, are intermixed with other documents in the
stream, the user can create a mailbox by substreaming on documents
created by other users. A user can also create substreams that
contain a subset of the mailbox substream, such as "all mail from
Bob", or "all mail I haven't responded to".
[0086] With the present invention, a reminder can be generated as
future electronic mail, that is a user can send mail that will
arrive in the future. If the user dials to the future before
writing a message document, when the message document is
transferred the message document will not appear on recipient's
stream until either that time arrives or the recipient happens to
dial the recipient's viewport to the set creation date. In the
present, the document will be in the stream data structure but the
viewport will not show the document. By appearing just-in-time and
not requiring the user to switch to yet another application, these
reminders are more effective than those included in a separate
calendar or scheduling utility program.
[0087] One embodiment of the present invention supports an
electronic business cards document type as well as a `phone call
record` document for noting the date and time of phone contacts. In
addition, the task of creating a phone call record is automated
through a personal agent. The personal software agent is
automatically attached to the personal agent menu so that anytime a
user wants to make a call the use chooses "Make Phonecall" from the
personal agent menu. The agent is spawned and the dialog box in
FIG. 6a appears. The user types in the name of the callee and the
agent searches the current stream for a business card with that
name. If the name is found, the software agent creates and fills in
the appropriate entries of the phone call record as seen in FIG. 7.
This functionality is similar to the use of the personal assistant
on the Newton personal digital assistant. The user can later use
the streams summarize operation to summarize the phone calls made.
This results in a report as shown in FIG. 6b.
[0088] In another embodiment of the present invention this
functionality is extended to include the functions of a time
manager. Time managers generally track the billable hours a
professional spends on one or more projects. In streams this is
easily accomplished by creating a timecard that marks the starting
and ending time of each task. These timecards are just thrown onto
the stream as used. Then, before each billing period, the stream is
summarized by the timecards, resulting in a detailed billing
statement for each contract.
[0089] Another embodiment of the present invention organizes a
user's personal finance. Large number of users already track their
checking accounts, savings, investments, and budgets with
applications such as QUICKEN. The types of records and documents
used in these applications such as electronic checks, deposits,
securities transactions, reports are conveniently stored and
generated by streams.
[0090] For example, a stock quote service may forward the daily
closing prices of a given portfolio to a user's stream at the end
of every business day. These documents are as shown in FIG. 8a.
Such documents can list each stock and mutual fund along with its
closing price, giving the user a method of calculating the value of
the user's assets on a specific day. But if the user wants
higher-level view of the portfolio over time the summarize
operation can be used. For example, the user first selects a
substream containing the stock quote documents and selects the
"summarize by portfolio" menu item. This operation compresses the
data into a single chart of historical data which summarize the
portfolio documents in the substream. This result is illustrated in
FIG. 8b.
[0091] Another embodiment of present invention provides a
stream-based checking account. Each check written creates a record
on the users stream. Some of these checks are electronic checks
sent to companies with an online presence; other checks are
transcribed from written checks. The user, in this embodiment,
employs a personal software agent to help balance his checkbook. At
year's end the user runs a tax summary which squishes the financial
information in the users stream onto income tax forms which can be
sent electronically to the Internal Revenue Service.
[0092] Streams can also be used for budgeting, tracking
expenditures, etc. Streams contain everything a user deals with in
the user's electronic life in a convenient and searchable
location.
[0093] As discussed previously, every user can send out custom
calling cards that grant access to a user's stream. Thus, the
particular user's stream can function as a personal World Wide Web
site such that the web site is merely a subset of the user's main
stream or a substream. For the convenience of external users, a
user can generate a "guide to this stream" document that functions
as a top page. In the context of the present invention, a
hyperlink, or a bookmark is just a calling card. By double
clicking, or some comparable mechanism, on a calling card the
viewport displays the specified stream. Embedding a link from one
document to another document means to embed calling cards.
[0094] The present invention's personal web site provides more
features than a conventional worldwide user side because: (1) the
web site and personal information site are unified and maintained
simultaneously with the same toolset; (2) visitors to the site use
the same interface as for the visitor's own stream, that is, the
visitor can browse, create substreams and squish; (3) visitors can
be given customized access levels so that friendly visitors get to
see more; and (4) the personal web site can filter incoming
documents.
[0095] Streams of the present invention are designed to work with
conventional World Wide Web browsers, thus opening a document of
type web bookmark causes the appropriate browser to fire-up as an
application the way a text editor fires up when the user opens a
text document. However, streams also provide an indigenous
web-browsing model. Key features such as calling cards and find
provide this functionality so that the viewport itself functions as
the browser.
[0096] Streams may also be quite useful for managing information
outside of the system. For example, keeping track of web bookmarks
is difficult and bookmarks are inconvenient to pass to other users.
Conventional systems accomplish those transactions by copying a Web
address from a web browser to an electronic mail message which the
recipient then copies from electronic mail back to recipient's
browser and adds this web address as a bookmark. Streams solve both
of these problems.
[0097] In one embodiment, an agent watches each user's bookmark
file for each time a new bookmark is added and then adds the same
bookmark to a stream as a new Web address document. The effect of
opening a Web address document in a stream is that the web browser
comes to the foreground and attempts to connect to the Web address.
In this way streams create a bookmark substream while at the same
time making the data in the bookmarks readily available to any
other search a user may make.
[0098] Passing Web addresses around is trivial, the user merely
copies the Web address document to another user's stream (a
one-step process) and the Web address is automatically included in
the recipient bookmark substream.
[0099] A stream is a data structure that can be examined and to the
extent possible manipulated by many processes simultaneously. Also
a process may block the end of a stream, that is, suspend the
stream operation, until awakened when a new document appears on the
stream head. Streams need to support the block-at-the-end operation
so that a software agent or what amounts to the same thing, that
is, a substream or a live squish document can examine each new
document arriving at the stream.
[0100] A stream must support simultaneous access because: (1) a
user creates many software agents which may need to examine the
stream concurrently; and (2) a user may have granted other users
limited access to the user's stream, and the user will want access
to this stream even while the other users access the stream.
[0101] One embodiment of the present invention is configured such
that each server may support three to four simultaneous users with
stream sizes on the order of 100,000 documents (perhaps a year or
two of documents for the average user). In another embodiment, the
operating system is configured such that lifestreams may have
millions of documents or more. The substreaming aspect of one
embodiment of the present invention is efficiently implemented
using an inverse index of the document collection maintained by the
server. No real performance problems with respect to retrieval have
occurred. Given the very large indices that are being used on the
Internet the retrieval scheme is expected to scale to large
document collections.
[0102] Since a user is unlikely look at 10,000 documents at once
and discern any usable information, the present invention does not
provide the user with an entire document collection at once.
Instead "cursors" are used to allow the user to view segments of
the document collection and to load in more segments as needed.
[0103] One embodiment of the invention provides a single-threaded
server which allows a single point of access. Other embodiments of
the present invention utilize a multi-server and multi-threaded
approach which provides a more scalable architecture.
[0104] Regarding the term "agent" used in this application, it is
noted that this term refers one of three kinds of embedded
computations: personal agents, document agents, and stream agents.
Personal agents are typically attached to the user interface and
can automate tasks or can learn from the user's interactions with
streams. Document agents live on documents and are spawned by
various events, for example, the first time that a document is
accessed. Stream agents are attached to streams and execute
whenever the stream changes in some way, for example, a new
document appears on the stream.
[0105] Further, regarding the term "document", it is noted that
this term includes traditional text based files, electronic mail
files, binary files, audio data, video data, and multimedia
data.
[0106] Additionally, this document stream operating system can be
implemented as an independent operating system with all required
subsystems such as: a storage subsystems in software and/or
hardware for writing documents to disc drive, tape drives and the
like; interrupt handling subsystems; and input/output subsystems.
However, the present invention also encompasses implementations
which utilize subsystems from other operating systems such as the
Disk Operating System (DOS), WINDOWS, and OPERATING SYSTEM 7. In
such implementations, the graphic user interface (GUI) of the other
operating system can be replaced by the present invention
viewports. Alternatively, the present invention can operate as a
document stream utility for the other operating system.
[0107] It must be noted that although the present invention is
described by reference to particular embodiments thereof, many
changes and modifications of the invention may become apparent to
those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and
scope of the invention, which is only limited by the appended
claims. For documents may have associated attributes used to locate
the document during a search, for example, a special code word
selected by the user.
REFERENCES
[0108] [1] Theodor Nelson. The right way to think about software
design. In The Art of Human-Computer Interface Sesign (Ed.) Brenda
Laurel, 1990. [0109] [2] Thomas W. Malone. How do people organize
their desks? Implications for the design of office information
systems. ACM Transactions on Office Systems, 1(1):99-112, January
1983. [0110] [3] M. Lansdale. The psychology of personal
information management. Applied Ergonomics, March 1988. [0111] [4]
David Gelernter. The cyber-road not taken. The Washington Post,
April 1994.
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