Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-14
2001-08-14
Bayerl, Raymond J. (Department: 2773)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C345S440000, C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06275228
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This application relates generally to computing architectures which may be used in conjunction with a graphical user interface, and more particularly to zooming graphical user interfaces.
2. Description of the Related Art
The available display screen area on a computer monitor has become increasingly inadequate in terms of the presentation of the variety of information and resources available to the user. In this regard, conventional computing systems have attempted to provide various solutions to address the problem of limited display screen area.
For example, windowing systems divide a screen into multiple tiled or overlapping display areas, resembling sheets of paper on a desktop, with one window in the foreground and others in the background. These windows remind the user that other information and control options are readily available to be brought to the foreground at the click of a mouse on an unobscured point in the window containing the desired material. However, such systems typically allow only a limited number of windows to be open and only the foreground window to be operable at any one time. In addition, information within a window that does not fit on the window's display screen area must be scrolled using an input device in order to access chosen information.
Another attempt to increase displayed information and control options is the use of hierarchical menuing through a sequence of display screens, offered to the user as a cascade of windows or a single designated screen area overwritten for each submenu. Typically, hierarchical menus rely upon information organized into decision trees. Abbreviating menuing options causes the menus to be less user friendly as menus do not always suggest sub-menu options. Further, cascaded windows introduce screen clutter and prevent the user from seeing all of the cascaded information simultaneously.
Zooming graphical user interfaces allow navigation into or out of the display screen, and can thus allow zooming graphical objects to be viewed from various perspectives at various levels of granularity. This provides the ability to variously view large numbers of objects at low resolution (e.g., by zooming away from them), or smaller numbers of objects at higher resolution (e.g., by zooming towards them). Thus, the user can review available resources from a broad perspective, and then focus with greater detail on particular resources.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Conventional zooming graphical user interfaces typically implement static hard-coded systems, which are inflexible in various aspects, and which are difficult to modify. Accordingly, what is necded is a graphical user interface with an architecture having improved flexibility, and more efficient functionality.
In one aspect, the present invention provides an interchangeable pick handler for determining, for example, whether zooming objects have been targeted to process an event. Providing an interchangeable pick handler allows the picking policy for making such determinations to be changed without requiring changes to other elements of the zooming engine, and without requiring a system reconfiguration.
In one embodiment, an object oriented zooming engine having an interchangeable pick handler is provided. Generally, the zooming engine provides signals for displaying (on a display) zooming objects residing in a zooming space. The user can view some or all of the zooming objects by navigating the zooming space using conventional mouse input, or any type of input. The perspective provided to the user (e.g., on the display) can be referred to as the zooming view.
A view manager manages the zooming view by identifying those zooming objects that reside in the zooming view. A pick handler, referenced by the view manager, determines which zooming objects in the zooming view will process the event according to a picking policy. For example, the pick handler may determine whether a given zooming object is encompassed by selection, whether the zooming object is transparent, and whether the zooming object is accepting events in determining whether the zooming object is targeted to respond to an event.
Providing a view manager that manages a zooming view and references a separate pick handler that determines whether zooming objects in the view have been targeted provides a flexible architecture that allows the policy for responding to events to be altered by merely introducing a new pick handler, without requiring reconfiguration of the view manager or zooming objects.
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Bayerl Raymond J.
Fujii Harold T.
Hailu Tadesse
Sony Corporation
Tobin Christopher M.
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