With the progress of science and technology, knowledge is increasing at an accelerating pace. As a result, the amount of information that needs to be stored and retrieved is also increasing rapidly. The ability to conveniently retrieve stored information is becoming a limiting factor for many people to gain meaningful access to knowledge. In the past, printed materials such as books have been, and still is, a common way for many to access information. As the amount of information that requires storage grows at an ever escalating pace, storage in electronic form is preferred. For example, information nowadays is often stored in computer memory, hard drives, zip disks, floppy disks, compact disks, memory cartridges, tapes, and the like. Such electronic form of information in turn requires suitable tools for retrieval, since humans have no natural ability or sensory organ that can access information from electronic storage media directly.
Information stored in electronic storage media is usually retrieved through the use of electronic instruments such as computers, CD players, tape player, game consoles, and the like. However, an information retrieval involving locating a portion from a large volume of data generally involves using computer. Typically, people access information from a computer by using a keyboard, a monitor, and perhaps a pointer device such as a mouse. In many cases, text based interfaces and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) have been used. Recently, GUIs have become the user interface of choice for accessing electronic forms of information. GUIs provide an intuitive way for people to interact with computers. For example, GUIs use graphical representation of real world objects such as file folders, cabinets, and trash cans to help users learn applications faster. Such real world objects are present in popular computer operation systems such as Windows by Microsoft Corp. and Macintosh by Apple Computers Co. More recently, the hyper text markup language (HTML) has become the standard for interfacing with the Internet. Linked text and graphic objects are marked by underlines and/or colors to signal that they are hypertext and accessible. For example, while browsing the Internet, by maneuvering the pointer onto the hypertext (e.g., Johnson's Bakery) on the computer monitor and clicking a mouse will cause the browser to go to the Johnson's Bakery's Web-site).
However, traditional GUIs and HTML require a reasonable-sized computer screen with a fine resolution for them to function effectively, which often means using a cumbersome computer with a heavy monitor. Such requirements severely limit their use in more mobile applications. What is needed is a technique to access electronic information with a convenient, easily movable GUI device.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds