Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-07
2003-04-01
Bella, Matthew C. (Department: 2672)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C345S215000, C345S215000, C463S030000, C463S031000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06542171
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scheme for GUI (graphical user interface) using a polygonal-line-shaped slider that serves as an interface for enabling a user to intuitively manipulate and playback spatio-temporal media data such as video data and animation data continuously in time in correspondence to user input with respect to interactive manipulation and playback of the spatio-temporal media data.
2. Description of the Background Art
One of conventional interfaces for interactively manipulating data is a slider.
FIG. 1
shows one conventional slider. The slider comprises a segment having a start point
91
and an end point
93
, and a thumb
92
, where the thumb
92
moves along the segment. A user uses a pointing device such as a mouse or a touch panel to manipulate the thumb
92
. A value between the start point
91
and the end point
93
is set in accordance with the movement of the thumb
92
. The value corresponding to the position of the thumb
92
is entered into a personal computer. In
FIG. 1
, the thumb
92
can be moved between a value
0
assigned to the start point
91
and a value
100
assigned to the end point
93
and is presently positioned at a value
45
.
The slider is usually displayed at a lower part of a monitor screen and serves as a cursor (anchor) moving along a time axis. The slider is used to indicate the relative position of a currently playbacked image frame and functions as an interface for realizing variable-speed playback of video data such as random playback, fast forward, and reverse mode. A technique of employing a slider to interactively manipulate data is disclosed in “A Magnifier Tool for Video Data” by M. Mills et al., CHI '92 (Human factors in computing systems), pp. 93 to 98, 1992.
The conventional slider may continuously manipulate image frames of video data according to the movements of the thumb. This conventional slider, however, linearly projects the time axis of video data onto the slider regardless of the contents of the video data such as the movements of an object contained in the video data. Therefore, the manipulation of the slider does not always agree with playbacked video data intuitively. For example, an object in playbacked video data may move to the left although the thumb of the slider is moved to the right. The conventional slider is unable to continuously follow the complicated trajectory of moving objects, waveforms, or routes in maps while inputting continuous values, because the conventional slider is incapable of spatially relating the video data to the slider, so that video data manipulation is difficult.
Another conventional technique for interactive manipulation of video data is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/099,189. This technique employs a function for mapping input X-Y coordinates to frame numbers of the images with regard to an object moving along a trajectory that can be linearly mapped. The function is used to playback a frame image corresponding to input coordinates. This technique, however, is also unable to manipulate video data that involve an complicated trajectory.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a scheme for GUI (Graphical User Interface) using a polygonal-line-shaped slider that enables a user to intuitively manipulate and playback spatio-temporal media data such as video data and animation data without deteriorating the temporal continuity of the data in interactive manipulation and playback of the spatio-temporal media data.
Another object of the present invention is to resolve the difficulty of manipulation due to the polygonal line shape of the slider, and to improve the handling of the polygonal-line-shaped slider by properly adjusting the position of the thumb of the slider to input coordinates even if user is incapable of tracing the polygonal line or the thumb of the polygonal-line-shaped slider.
In order to accomplish the above objects, an aspect of the present invention provides a method of entering data corresponding to specified coordinates. The method includes the steps of (a) storing coordinates of vertexes which define a polygonal line shaped slider that is composed of a polygonal line formed by at least one segment and a coordinates indicator to be moved along the polygonal line, (b) storing input coordinates, and (c) mapping the input coordinates onto a point on the polygonal line and positioning the coordinate indicator at the point.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of interactively manipulating video data. The method includes the steps of (l) sliding a coordinate indicator along a polygonal line formed by at least one segment using a polygonal line shaped slider composed of the polygonal line and the coordinate indicator according to input coordinates, and (m) presenting the video data of an image frame corresponding to the position of the slid coordinates indicator.
Still another aspect of the present invention provides an apparatus for entering data corresponding to specified coordinates. The apparatus has (a) a unit for storing coordinates of vertexes which define a polygonal line shaped slider that is composed of a polygonal line formed by at least one segment and a coordinates indicator to be moved along the polygonal line, (b) a unit for storing input coordinates, and (c) a unit for mapping the input coordinates onto a point on the polygonal line and positioning the coordinate indicator at the point.
Still another aspect of the present invention provides an apparatus for interactively manipulating video data. The apparatus has (l) a unit for receiving input coordinates, (m) a unit for sliding a coordinate indicator along a polygonal line formed by at least one segment using a polygonal line shaped slider composed of the polygonal line and the coordinate indicator according to the input coordinates, and (n) a unit for presenting the video data of an image frame corresponding to the position of the slid coordinate indicator.
Still another aspect of the present invention provides a computer readable recording medium for causing the computer to execute processing for entering data corresponding to specified coordinates, the processing including: (a) a process for storing coordinates of vertexes which define a polygonal line shaped slider that is composed of a polygonal line formed by at least one segment and a coordinate indicator to be moved along the polygonal line, (b) a process for storing Input coordinates, and (c) a process for mapping the input coordinates onto a point on the polygonal line and positioning the coordinate indicator at the point.
Still another aspect of the present invention provides a computer readable recording medium for causing the computer to execute processing for interactively manipulating video data, the processing including: (l) a process for sliding a coordinate indicator along a polygonal line formed by at least one segment using a polygonal line shaped slider composed of the polygonal line and the coordinate indicator according to input coordinates and (m) a process for presenting the video data of an image frame corresponding to the position of the slid coordinate indicator.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1
is a diagram view showing a conventional slider;
FIG. 2
is a diagram showing a polygonal-line-shaped slider according to the present invention;
FIG. 3
is a block diagram showing a polygonal-line-shaped slider apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4
is a diagram showing exemplary vertex data stored in a vertex storage unit of the apparatus according to the first embodiment;
FIG. 5
is a flow chart showing a processing carried out by the apparatus according to the first embodiment;
FIG. 6
Is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a mapping unit of the apparatus accordi
Akutsu Akihito
Kojima Haruhiko
Satou Takashi
Tonomura Yoshinobu
Bella Matthew C.
Blackman Anthony
Kilpatrick & Stockton LLP
Nippon Telegraph amd Telephone Corporation
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