Method and Apparatus for Scaling a User Interface Adaptively to an Object Discovery/Display System with Policy Driven Filtering

Abstract

The present invention provides a method, apparatus and computer instructions for scaling a user interface adaptively to an object discovery or display system with policy driven filtering. A number of filters are defined by the user in an initial setup. The filter includes a target number of discovered objects and a metric for filtering discovered objects. Once the initial setup is complete, the present invention automatically triggers or deactivates the filters and dynamically applies one or more filters based on the number of discovered objects and rules defined by the user. Resulting discovered objects are displayed in the user interface to the user.

1 - 18 . (canceled) 
     
     
         19 . A computer program product, comprising:
 a computer recordable-type medium storing computer usable program code for adaptively scaling a user interface to an object discovery system, the computer program product comprising:   computer usable program code configured for receiving a user input to define a plurality of filters to filter discovered objects in an initial setup of a data processing system;   computer usable program code configured for detecting a change in a number of the discovered objects;   in response to detecting the change in the number of the discovered objects, computer usable program code configured for automatically triggering at least one filter of the defined plurality of filters, wherein the triggered at least one filter defines a target number of discovered objects to be displayed in the user interface and a metric for determining a desirability of displaying a discovered object in the user interface;   in response to automatically triggering the at least one filter of the defined plurality of filters, computer usable program code configured for filtering at least one discovered object of the discovered objects by the triggered at least one filter to form at least one filtered discovered object; and   computer usable program code configured for displaying the at least one filtered discovered object in the user interface.   
     
     
         20 . The computer program product of  claim 19 , wherein the metric includes one of a number of previous interactions, a common interest or a type of hardware used. 
     
     
         21 . The computer program product of  claim 19 , wherein the initial setup is defined by a user of the data processing system. 
     
     
         22 . The computer program product of  claim 19 , wherein the computer usable program code configured for automatically triggering at least one filter of the defined plurality of filters comprises:
 computer usable program code configured for comparing the target number of discovered objects with the number of discovered objects.   
     
     
         23 . The computer program product of  claim 19 , wherein the computer usable program code configured for filtering at least one discovered object of the discovered objects comprises:
 computer usable program code configured for determining whether the at least one discovered object satisfies the metric of the triggered at least one filter.   
     
     
         24 . The computer program product of  claim 19 , wherein the computer usable program code configured for detecting a change in a number of the discovered objects comprises:
 computer usable program code configured for receiving a message from at least one discovered object over at least one communication link.   
     
     
         25 . The computer program product of  claim 24 , wherein the communication link includes a bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection. 
     
     
         26 . The computer program product of  claim 19 , wherein the computer usable program code configured for automatically triggering at least one filter of the defined plurality of filters comprises:
 computer usable program code configured for automatically deactivating the at least one filter of the defined plurality of filters in response to detecting the change.   
     
     
         27 . The computer program product of  claim 26 , wherein the computer usable program code configured for automatically deactivating the at least one filter of the defined plurality of filters comprises:
 computer usable program, code configured for comparing a target number of discovered objects with the number of discovered objects.   
     
     
         28 . A data processing system for adaptively scaling a user interface to an object discovery system, comprising:
 a bus system;   a storage device connected to the bus system, wherein the storage device includes a set of instructions; and
 a processing unit connected to the bus system, wherein the processing unit executes the set of instructions to receive a user input to define a plurality of filters to filter discovered objects in an initial setup of the data processing system, detect a change in a number of the discovered objects, in response to detecting the change in the number of the discovered objects, automatically trigger at least one filter of the defined plurality of filters, wherein the triggered at least one filter defines a target number of discovered objects to be displayed in the user interface and a metric for determining a desirability of displaying a discovered object in the user interface, in response to automatically triggering the at least one filter of the defined plurality of filters, filter at least one discovered object of the discovered objects by the triggered at least one filter to form at least one filtered discovered object, and display the at least one filtered discovered object in the user interface. 
   
     
     
         29 . The data processing system of  claim 28 , wherein the metric includes one of a number of previous interactions, a common interest or a type of hardware used. 
     
     
         30 . The data processing system of  claim 28 , wherein the initial setup is defined by a user of the data processing system. 
     
     
         31 . The data processing system of  claim 28 , wherein the processing unit executing the set of instructions to automatically trigger at least one filter of the defined plurality of filters comprises:
 the processing unit executing the set of instructions to compare the target number of discovered objects with the number of discovered objects.   
     
     
         32 . The data processing system of  claim 28 , wherein the processing unit executing the set of instructions to filter at least one discovered object of the discovered objects comprises:
 the processing unit executing the set of instructions to determine whether the at least one discovered object satisfies the metric of the triggered at least one filter.   
     
     
         33 . The data processing system of  claim 28 , wherein the processing unit executing the set of instructions to detect a change in a number of the discovered objects comprises:
 the processing unit executing the set of instructions to receive a message from at least one discovered object over at least one communication link.   
     
     
         34 . The data processing system of  claim 33 , wherein the communication link includes a bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection. 
     
     
         35 . The data processing system of  claim 28 , wherein the processing unit executing the set of instructions to automatically trigger at least one filter of the defined plurality of filters comprises:
 the processing unit executing the set of instructions to automatically deactivate the at least one filter of the defined plurality of filters in response to detecting the change.   
     
     
         36 . The data processing system of  claim 35 , wherein the processing unit executing the set of instructions to automatically deactivate the at least one filter of the defined plurality of filters comprises:
 the processing unit executing the set of instructions to compare a target number of discovered objects with the number of discovered objects.