Appeal No. 2001-1764 Page 2
Application No. 08/784,670
remain the same over time; the items of a variable content menu change over
time. (Id.)
According to the appellant, existing menu managing mechanisms arrange menu
items rigidly. (Id. at 2.) Fixed content menus are never rearranged, no matter how
often a user selects or ignores certain items. (Id.) Variable content menus change only
in strict sequence with the order of past selections such that only recent selections
appear on the menu. (Id.)
Accordingly, the appellant’s invention provides three features for managing
menus. First, “automatic ranking control” uses “heuristics” to control the order in which
menu item are arranged on a given menu. (Id. at 4.) Heuristics describe past use, e.g.,
frequency of selection, recency of selection, and time-of-day of selection. (Id.) Second,
“manual menu item control” allows a user to rank items in a given menu and to specify
a time-of-day during which individual items are to appear near the top of the menu.
(Id.) Third, “menu initialization” uses historical arrangements of menu item to initialize
or reset a user's menus upon request. (Id. at 5.)
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