Multi-user collaborative circular graphical user interfaces

• US 20020163537A1
• Filed: 06/21/2002
• Published: 11/07/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc. (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc. (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Shen, Chia, Vernier, Frederic
• Granted Patent: US 6,894,703 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/751
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1423 controlling a plurality of local displays, e.g. CRT and flat panel display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1446 display composed of modules, e.g. video walls
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/00 General purpose image data processing

Abstract

A multi-user collaborative circular graphical user interface for displaying items includes a transformation engine responsive to external command, such as mouse clicks, for generating polar coordinates for the items, an asynchronous rendering engine for generating images of the items according to the polar coordinates, and a thread switching engine for controlling the rendering engine.

Claims

1. A multi-user collaborative circular graphical user interface for displaying items, comprising;

a transformation engine responsive to external command for generating polar coordinates for the items;

an asynchronous rendering engine for generating images of the items according to the polar coordinates; and

a thread switching engine for controlling the rendering engine.

2. The interface of claim 1 further comprising:

a circular display area for rendering the items.

3. The interface of claim 2 wherein the circular display area includes a touch sensitive surface.

4. The interface of claim 2 wherein a central axis of the items passes through a center of the display area.

5. The interface of claim 1 wherein the items are rendered from a plurality of layers.

6. The interface of claim 5 wherein the layers include a pop-up layer, control layer, a selected image layer, a deformation grid, and a background layer.

7. The interface of claim 1 wherein the transformation engine performs translation, scaling, and rotation using the polar coordinates.

8. The interface of claim 1 wherein the polar coordinates include local and global coordinates.

9. The interface of claim 5 wherein the layers are arranged hierarchically.

10. The interface of claim 9 wherein the items are rendered in a bottom-to-top order.

11. The interface of claim 5 wherein there is an execution thread for each layer.