Occlusion reduction and magnification for multidimensional data presentations

• US 20060050091A1
• Filed: 08/31/2005
• Published: 03/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accessify, LLC (Ascend Innovation Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: IDELIX Software Inc. (Lat49 Media Inc.)
• Inventors: Baar, David J. P., Shoemaker, Garth B. D., Solehdin, Ali
• Granted Patent: US 7,714,859 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/661
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04805 Virtual magnifying lens, i.e. window or frame movable on top of displayed information to enlarge it for better reading or selection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/20 Perspective computation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/40 Hidden part removal
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/20 Finite element generation, e.g. wire-frame surface description, tesselation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/205 Re-meshing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2219/2016 Rotation, translation, scaling

Abstract

A method in a computer system for generating a presentation of a region-of-interest in an original image for display on a display screen, the original image being a collection of polygons having polygons defined by three or more shared edges joined at vertex points, the method comprising: establishing a lens for the region-of-interest, the lens having a magnified focal region for the region-of-interest at least partially surrounded by a shoulder region across which the magnification decreases, the focal and shoulder regions having respective perimeters; subdividing polygons in the collection of polygons proximate to at least one of the perimeters, as projected with the polygons onto a base plane, by inserting one or more additional vertex points and additional edges into the polygons to be subdivided; and, applying the lens to the original image to produce the presentation by displacing the vertex points onto the lens and perspectively projecting the displacing onto a view plane in a direction aligned with a viewpoint for the region-of-interest.

Claims

1. A method in a computer system for generating a presentation of a region-of-interest in an original image for display on a display screen, the original image being a collection of polygons having polygons defined by three or more shared edges joined at vertex points, the method comprising:

establishing a lens for the region-of-interest, the lens having a magnified focal region for the region-of-interest at least partially surrounded by a shoulder region across which the magnification decreases, the focal and shoulder regions having respective perimeters;

subdividing polygons in the collection of polygons proximate to at least one of the perimeters, as projected with the polygons onto a base plane, by inserting one or more additional vertex points and additional edges into the polygons to be subdivided; and

,

applying the lens to the original image to produce the presentation by displacing the vertex points onto the lens and perspectively projecting the displacing onto a view plane in a direction aligned with a viewpoint for the region-of-interest.

2. The method of claim 1 and further comprising positioning the one or more additional vertex points and additional edges to align with the at least one of the perimeters.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the focal region has a size and a shape and further comprising receiving one or more signals to adjust at least one of the size, shape, and magnification of the focal region.

4. The method of claim 3 and further comprising displaying the presentation on the display screen.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the lens is a surface.

6. The method of claim 3 and further comprising receiving the one or more signals through a graphical user interface (“

GUI”

) displayed over the lens.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the GUI has means for adjusting at least one of the size, shape, and magnification of the focal region.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein at least some of the means are icons.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the means for adjusting the size and shape is at least one handle icon positioned on the perimeter of the focal region.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the means for adjusting the magnification is a slide bar icon.

11. The method of claim 6 and further comprising receiving the one or more signals from a pointing device manipulated by a user.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the pointing device is at least one of a mouse, a trackball, and a keyboard.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the shoulder region has a size and a shape and further comprising receiving one or more signals through a GUI displayed over the lens to adjust at least one of the size and shape of the shoulder region, wherein the GUI has one or more handle icons positioned on the perimeter of the shoulder region for adjusting at least one of the size and the shape of the shoulder region.

14. The method of claim 1 and further comprising selecting the base plane.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the polygons are orthonormally projected onto the base plane.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the polygons are perspectively projected onto the base plane.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the original image is a three-dimensional original image.

18. The method of claim 1 and further comprising positioning the one or more additional vertex points and additional edges to align with radii of the lens.

19. A system for generating a presentation of a region-of-interest in an original image for display on a display screen, the original image being a collection of polygons having polygons defined by three or more shared edges joined at vertex points, the system comprising:

a processor coupled to memory, the display screen, and an input device and adapted to;

establish a lens for the region-of-interest, the lens having a magnified focal region for the region-of-interest at least partially surrounded by a shoulder region across which the magnification decreases, the focal and shoulder regions having respective perimeters;

subdivide polygons in the collection of polygons proximate to at least one of the perimeters, as projected with the polygons onto a base plane, by inserting one or more additional vertex points and additional edges into the polygons to be subdivided; and

,

apply the lens to the original image to produce the presentation by displacing the vertex points onto the lens and perspectively projecting the displacing onto a view plane in a direction aligned with a viewpoint for the region-of-interest.

20. A computer program product having a computer readable medium tangibly embodying computer executable code for directing a data processing system to generate a presentation of a region-of-interest in an original image for display on a display screen, the original image being a collection of polygons having polygons defined by three or more shared edges joined at vertex points, the computer program product comprising:

code for establishing a lens for the region-of-interest, the lens having a magnified focal region for the region-of-interest at least partially surrounded by a shoulder region across which the magnification decreases, the focal and shoulder regions having respective perimeters;

code for subdividing polygons in the collection of polygons proximate to at least one of the perimeters, as projected with the polygons onto a base plane, by inserting one or more additional vertex points and additional edges into the polygons to be subdivided; and

,

code for applying the lens to the original image to produce the presentation by displacing the vertex points onto the lens and perspectively projecting the displacing onto a view plane in a direction aligned with a viewpoint for the region-of-interest.

21. An article having a computer readable modulated carrier signal medium being usable over a network, the computer readable modulated carrier signal medium having embedded means for directing a data processing system to generate a presentation of a region-of-interest in an original image for display on a display screen, the original image being a collection of polygons having polygons defined by three or more shared edges joined at vertex points, the article comprising:

means in the medium for establishing a lens for the region-of-interest, the lens having a magnified focal region for the region-of-interest at least partially surrounded by a shoulder region across which the magnification decreases, the focal and shoulder regions having respective perimeters;

means in the medium for subdividing polygons in the collection of polygons proximate to at least one of the perimeters, as projected with the polygons onto a base plane, by inserting one or more additional vertex points and additional edges into the polygons to be subdivided; and

,

means in the medium for applying the lens to the original image to produce the presentation by displacing the vertex points onto the lens and perspectively projecting the displacing onto a view plane in a direction aligned with a viewpoint for the region-of-interest.

22. A method in a computer system for generating a presentation of an object-of-interest in an original image for display on a display screen, the original image being a collection of objects, the object-of-interest being one object in the collection, the method comprising:

establishing a viewpoint for the object-of-interest;

establishing a path through the original image between the viewpoint and the object-of-interest;

extruding points on the object-of-interest along the path toward the viewpoint to define a volume for determining minimum displacements from the path for objects intersected by the volume; and

,

displacing one or more of the objects away from the path according to a transformation function and the minimum displacements to locations within the original image where substantially all of the objects displaced remain visible and do not occlude the object-of-interest when viewed from the viewpoint.