TECHNOLOGY

Fisheye Calendar: A Calendar Interface for Small to Large Devices (DateLENS)

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Overview

Computer scientists at the University of Maryland, College Park at the Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) have created a computer calendar interface for PDAs that supports users in performing planning and analysis tasks by using a visual representation of dates coupled with compact overviews, user control over the visible time period, and integrated search. This enables users to see overviews and to easily navigate the calendar structure and to discover patterns and outliers.

The calendar first shows users an overview of three months. When a particular day is clicked, that date expands and the surrounding days contract. Clicking on the day again maximizes the day text to "full-screen.”

Using a double scroll bar unique to this calendar system users can control the display to show from 1 to 52 weeks of the year. Users can search by typing in text which shows dynamic highlighting of matching days, using pre-canned searches, or matching on existing appointments. Pre-canned searches such as birthdays, holidays and meetings may also be user defined and thus expanded. Clicking on a scheduled event will highlight other days having the same recurring event. (e.g. teaching class on Thursday, or multiple dental appointments made in advance).

The Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) conducts research on advanced user interfaces and their development processes. Current work of HCIL includes new approaches to: information visualization, interfaces for digital libraries, multimedia resources for learning communities, zooming user interfaces (ZUIs), technology design methods with and for children and instruments for evaluating user interface technologies. See http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/about.

For information on this technology or other technologies created by HCIL please contact the Office of Technology Commercialization at 301 405-3947 or by e-mail, [email protected].

Contact Info

UM Ventures
0134 Lee Building
7809 Regents Drive
College Park, MD 20742
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (301) 405-3947 | Fax: (301) 314-9502