arXiv subjects

Umakant Mishra

Publications and source records attributed to Umakant Mishra.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2014

10 inventions on Improving Toolbars: A TRIZ based analysis

Toolbar is one among the popular elements of a graphical user interface. The other popular elements of graphical user interface are buttons, menu, scrollbar, dialog box etc., all of which provide easy access to various functions of a GUI System. A toolbar often does a similar function as the menu but with certain differences. A menu has the advantage of holding a large number of items without needing any additional screen space. In contrast, each button on the toolbar permanently occupies some space on the screen. It is not possible to implement large number of functions through a toolbar, as they will occupy more and more valuable screen space. However, the toolbar has an advantage as it gives a single click access to any function unlike a menu system where the user has to navigate through sub-menus to ultimate discover the item he is looking for. This article explores the desired features of a toolbar and the ideal features of an advanced toolbar. The contradictions are described from a TRIZ perspective and solutions are derived using Inventive principles. Besides the article illustrates 10 inventions on improving Toolbars selected from US patent database.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2014

Inventions on GUI for Touch Sensitive Screens

A touch sensitive screen displays the information on the screen and also receives the input by sensing a user's touch on the same screen. This mechanism facilitates system interaction directly through the screen without needing a mouse or keyboard. This method has the advantage to make the system compact by removing keyboard, mouse and similar interactive device. However there are certain difficulties to implement a touch screen interface. The display screens of portable devices are becoming smaller thereby leaving lesser space for display of data, menu or touch screen interaction. Besides some screens need to display so much of information that they hardly can afford any space to display touch screen buttons. This article illustrates various inventions which have successfully eliminated these difficulties by applying appropriate Inventive principles.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2014

Inventions on presenting textual items in Graphical User Interface

Although a GUI largely replaces textual descriptions by graphical icons, the textual items are not completely removed. The textual items are inevitably used in window titles, message boxes, help items, menu items and popup items. Textual items are necessary for communicating messages that are beyond the limitation of graphical messages. However, it is necessary to harness the textual items on the graphical interface in such a way that they complement each other to produce the best effect. One has to keep various considerations in mind while applying textual items in Graphical User Interface. This article illustrates a few inventions on presenting textual items in a Graphical user Interface.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2014

Inventions on GUI for Eye Cursor Controls Systems

Operating a GUI through eyeball is a complex mechanism and not used as often as mouse or trackball. But there are situations where eye-mouse devices can play a tremendous role especially where the hands of the user are not available or busy to perform other activities. The difficulties of implementing an eye-cursor control system are many. The article illustrates some inventions on eye-cursor control system, which attempt to eliminate the difficulties of the prior art mechanisms.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2014

Inventions on using sound and speech in GUI

Voice Recognition (VR) facilitates a human interaction with the machine. VR may be used to replace the manual task of pushing buttons on a wireless telephone keypad. This is particularly useful when the hands of the user are busy with other activities like driving a car. However, the VRS system has several limitations. The VRS requires lot of training and customization in order to be effectively used by individual users as each individual falls into different voice patterns. Besides the voice interface is complex and is not as reliable as the keyboard or mouse. This article illustrates some interesting inventions on using sound and voice in Graphical User Interfaces.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2014

Inventions on Using Colors in Graphical User Interfaces

Color is an important aspect of any graphical user interface (GUI). Color is used to make a GUI attractive and meaningful. But there are difficulties in using colors too. Improper use of color can result in adverse effects. Wrong colors at wrong place can make the GUI look clumsy and confusing. Apart from the aesthetics issues there are many other issues involved with colors too. One of the contradictions relating to usage of color is "The color of the GUI should be customizable to suit user preference. But at the same time it should not be customizable, as that would cause annoyance and confusion to other users." Another contraction relating to using color is "The user should be displayed all 16 million colors to select the desired color precisely, But from another angle the user should not be displayed all 16 million colors as that would create confusion and difficulty in selection." This article analyses some inventions selected from US Patent database and illustrates how the inventors have been able to solve various contradictions relating to usage of colors in Graphical User Interface.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2014

Inventions on GUI Aesthetics

Aesthetics or "look and feel" is one of the most important features of any graphical user interface. Better aesthetics makes the interface user-friendlier and more popular. Better aesthetics helps the user to understand the meaning of various components and memorize the navigation paths. A better look and feel ultimately makes a GUI more efficient and effective. Various methods are adopted to improve the aesthetics of a GUI, such as, by using colors, using 3D graphics, using pictorial icons, using sound etc. It is important to provide links to all the important features on a desktop or on a quick access panel. But too many icons or buttons sometimes creates confusion. Hence it is important to restrict the temptation of putting everything on the first screen or load the rarely used buttons on the toolbar. One should ensure that the aesthetics of a GUI is not compromising with its accessibility and other important features. This article illustrates some inventions made on GUI aesthetics.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2014

Inventions on Drag and Drop in GUI

Drag and drop operation is one of the key capabilities of any Graphical User Interface. The user can do quite complex operations simply by visually dragging and dropping objects from one location to another. It saves user from remembering and typing a lot of commands. The result of a drag and drop operation may vary depending the type of source object and type of destination object. For example dragging a file and dropping on a folder may copy or move the file to the destination folder, dropping that file to a remote FTP location may upload that file using internet, dropping that file on a printer icon may print that file, dropping that file on the trash can may delete that file, and dropping that file on an executable may play or open or compute or manipulate that file. Although a drag and drop operation prima facie seems to be a simple operation, it can become extremely complicated depending on the type of source objects dragged and the type of destination objects selected for dropping. There are many limitations of a conventional drag and drop operation. This article points out the difficulties of a drag and drop operation and illustrates the solutions disclosed by various inventions to overcome those difficulties.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2014

Inventions on selecting GUI elements

Selecting an object or element is a fundamental operation in any graphic user interface. It is necessary to select an object before doing any operation (such as, dragging, copying, opening, deleting etc.) on that object. The GUI may provide features to select any single object or even multiple objects. The feature of selecting multiple objects can provides tremendous power to the GUI as the user can do complex operations on multiple objects in one go. However, the process of selection is not as simple as it appears to the user of a GUI. The internal logic of a selection mechanism can be very complex in some situations. The article describes some fundamental difficulties associated with the selection mechanism, and illustrates the solutions provided by different inventions selected from US patent database.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2014

Inventions on Displaying and Resizing Windows

Windows are used quite frequently in a GUI environment. The greatest advantage of using windows is that each window creates a virtual screen space. Hence, although the physical screen space is limited to a few inches, use of windows can create unlimited screen space to display innumerable items. The use of windows facilitates the user to open and interact with multiple programs or documents simultaneously in different windows. Sometimes a single program may also open multiple windows to display various items. The user can resize the windows and move their location time to time as desired. However, there are several concerns of a window relating to its size, appearance, positioning, color, visibility, resizability etc. For example, the window should have a minimum and a maximum size, dragging and resizing the window should be easy, one window should not be obscured by another window, windows should adjust their size and location in order to match with the changes in the resolution and display environment etc. This article illustrates six patents from US Patent database solving problems relating to displaying and resizing of windows. The inventions include automatic resizing and relocating of windows, alternative modes of displaying windows to accommodate within the limited display area, combining both spatial and temporal methods to resize the window, locking and minimizing windows and making the windows invisible on specific situations.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2014

Inventions on Adaptable Menu: A TRIZ based analysis

The menu is one of the most widely used elements of a graphical user interface. The objective of a menu system is to provide various commands and functions to the user in an easy way so that the user can just select the desired operation from a given list instead of typing a complex command in the command prompt. In a conventional menu system the menu items or options are hard-coded in the computer program. The programmer or developer composes menu items at the time of development. The developer tries to include all options that he feels may be required by the user in future. Although the items are decided from "requirement analysis" and other studies, it is difficult to know the exact need of a user at a future period of time. This leads to inclusion of a lot of items in the menu, which leads to user confusion and frustration. Thus there is a need for adaptable menu that can be changed according to user requirement. The items of the adaptable menu should change from user to user and from time to time depending on the program context and likelihood of user selection. This article defines the Ideal Final Result of a dropdown menu system, defines the desirable functions of an adaptable menu, finds and solves the contradictions faced in achieving the desirable functions, and illustrates six selected cases on adaptable menu from US patent database.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2014

Inventions on Menu and Toolbar Coordination

Both toolbar and dropdown menu are used popularly in a graphical user interface with a similar objective of providing easy access to the internal functions. Often the same functions are provided through both menu and toolbar. Both toolbar and dropdown menu have their own advantages and disadvantages. A menu can provide more options occupying less real estate, while toolbar can provide a single click access without navigating through trees and branches. As a menu and toolbar system shares many common objectives, it is often useful maintain some relationship to coordinate between both the elements of a GUI system. The relationships can be easy as both of them often share the same internal function. For example, the print option in a menu will (most likely) call the same function as the print button on the toolbar. This article discusses the similarities and differences between a dropdown menu and toolbar. Five inventions trying to focus on both menu and toolbar are illustrated in the article.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2014

10 Inventions on Command Buttons in a Graphical User Interface

A command button may contain a textual label or a graphic image or both. It may be static or animated. There can be many different features to make a command button attractive and effective. As command button is a typical GUI element, most improvement on GUI in general will also be applicable to command buttons. Besides, there are also inventions to improve various aspects of command buttons in specific. This article illustrates 10 selected inventions from US patent database. Each invention is followed by a TRIZ based analysis in brief.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2014

10 Inventions on scrolling and scrollbars in Graphical User Interface

Scrolling mechanism is used to display and edit large documents in a limited screen space or window. The scrolling mechanism may include a vertical scroll bar or a horizontal scroll bar or both to move the contents of the documents up and down or left and right. There may be navigation buttons on the screen representing the navigation keys on the keyboard. The user can click these buttons to scroll the screen. There may be very different methods of scrolling such as by using the "thumb", as popularly used with a PDF document. Scrolling may be achieved through eyeball tracking in a hands-free environment where the user does not have hands or wants to use hands for other activities. This article illustrates ten interesting inventions on scrolling selected from US patent database.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2014

Inventions on Tree Navigators used in Graphical User Interface

A tree view or tree navigator is used to display hierarchical data organized in the form of a tree. In a tree structure there are parent and child nodes. The child nodes may further have descendants to n levels. There are many methods to make the navigation easy. Some of these are expanding and collapsing branches, splitting the tree, displaying a parent node in a separate tree, zooming branches, scrolling in various directions etc. It is still a difficult exercise to handle large trees efficiently. The effort still continues to manage large number of nodes with faster speed, greater control, user friendliness and aesthetics. This article illustrates five inventions on tree navigators selected from US patent database. Each of them tries to solve various problems relating to the tree navigator in different ways. Each invention is also analyzed from a TRIZ perspective.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2014

Inventions on dialog boxes used in GUI

The dialog boxes are useful in case of displaying warnings, errors, confirmations etc. in special situations. A typical dialog box is displayed in a small window with some text message along with a few options for the user to select. However, there are certain difficulties associated in programming and implementing a conventional dialog box, such as, severe programming effort, rigidity of the hard coded message, obscuring screen space and so on. There is a need to overcome these difficulties of the dialog box to make them more efficient and useful. The modality of the dialog boxes also creates some limitations. While modal dialog boxes needs to be closed explicitly by the user, modeless dialog boxes can grow in number and become difficult to control. Thus, an ideal dialog box should be deprived of all the above-mentioned drawbacks. The dialog box should not obscure the screen. The user should be able open multiple dialog boxes but without obscuring the screen. This article analyses 5 interesting inventions on dialog boxes selected from US Patent database. Each invention tries to overcome some limitations of a conventional dialog box and provides some innovative features. Each solution is also analyzed from a TRIZ perspective.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2014

Inventions on expressing emotions In Graphical User Interface

The conventional GUI is more mechanical and does not recognize or communicate emotions. The modern GUIs are trying to infer the likely emotional state and personality of the user and communicate through a corresponding emotional state. Emotions are expressed in graphical icons, sounds, pictures and other means. The emotions are found to be useful in especially in communication software, interactive learning systems, robotics and other adaptive environments. Various mechanisms have been developed to express emotions through graphical user interfaces. This article illustrates some interesting inventions selected from US patent database.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2014

Critical Considerations for Developing MIS for NGOs

Although Information Systems and Information Technology (IS & IT) has become a major driving force for many of the current day organizations, the NGOs have not been able to utilize the benefits up to a satisfactory level. Most organizations use standard office tools to manage huge amount for field data and never feel the need for a central repository of data. While many people argue that an NGO should not spend too much money on information management, it is a fact that organizing the information requires more of a mindset and an organized behavior than a huge financial investment.

cs.CY↗