CONTROLLING THREE-DIMENSIONAL VIEWS OF SELECTED PORTIONS OF CONTENT

• US 20120151416A1
• Filed: 12/10/2010
• Published: 06/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bell, Denise A., Grigsby, Travis M., Jenkins, Jana H.
• Granted Patent: US 8,589,822 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/848
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 30/34 Stereoscopes providing a stereoscopic pair of separated images corresponding to parallactically displaced views of the same object, e.g. 3D slide viewers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

Some embodiments of the inventive subject matter are directed to presenting a first portion of content and a second portion of content in a two-dimensional view via a graphical user interface and detecting an input associated with one or more of the first portion of the content and the second portion of the content. Some embodiments are further directed to selecting the first portion of the content in response to the detecting of the input, and changing the presenting of the first portion of the content from the two-dimensional view to a three-dimensional view in response to the selecting the first portion of the content. Some embodiments are further directed to continuing to present the second portion of the content in the two-dimensional view while changing the presenting of the first portion of the content to the three-dimensional view.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

presenting a first portion of content and a second portion of content in a two-dimensional view via a graphical user interface;

detecting an input associated with one or more of the first portion of the content and the second portion of the content;

selecting the first portion of the content in response to the detecting of the input; and

changing the presenting of the first portion of the content from the two-dimensional view to a three-dimensional view in response to the selecting the first portion of the content while continuing to present the second portion of the content in the two-dimensional view.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the input is a user input directly with the first portion of the content.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the input causes the second portion of the content to change state, and wherein the selecting the first portion of the content in response to detecting the change in the state of the second portion of the content.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first portion is associated with a first position in the graphical user interface and the second portion is associated with a second position in the graphical user interface, and wherein said changing the first portion of the content from the two-dimensional view to the three-dimensional view further includes maintaining the first position of the first portion of the content relative to the second position of the second portion of the content

5. The method of claim 1, wherein changing the first portion of the content from the two-dimensional view to a three-dimensional view comprises modifying visual elements of the first portion of the content to have a stereoscopic depth effect.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the stereoscopic depth effect is perceptible by a three-dimensional viewing mechanism.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting a change of state to the second portion of the content after the changing of the presenting of the first portion of the content from the two-dimensional view to a three-dimensional view; and

changing the presenting of the first portion of the content from the three-dimensional view to the two-dimensional view in response to the change of the state of the second portion of the content.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting that the first portion of the content is close to a boundary of an area that contains the first portion of the content;

generating a prompt to the change the first portion of the content to the three-dimensional view in response to detecting that the first portion of the content is close to the boundary;

detecting an acceptance to the prompt via user input; and

selecting the first portion of the content in response to detecting the acceptance of the prompt via the user input.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting an interaction with the first portion of the content; and

rotating the first portion of the content, in the three-dimensional view, in response to detecting the interaction with the first portion of the content.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the first portion of the content is a text string presented in a portion of a window presented on a computer desktop, and wherein a length of the text string is configured to increase in response to a change in state of the second portion of the content.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting a change to the first portion of the content;

detecting that the change of the first portion of the content causes a size of the first portion of the content to exceed a boundary of a presentation area; and

presenting the first portion of the content in the three-dimensional view in response to the detecting that the change of the first portion of the content causes the size of the first portion of the content to exceed the boundary of the presentation area.

12. A computer program product for changing an appearance of a portion of content to a three-dimensional state, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to,

present a portion of content in a two-dimensional state via a graphical user interface, wherein the portion of the content is contained within an area of the graphical user interface,

detect a modification to the appearance of the two-dimensional state of the portion of the content, determine, via the modification, that the portion of the content exceeds a boundary of the area of the graphical user interface, and

change the portion of the content from the two-dimensional state to the three-dimensional state in response to detecting the modification to the appearance of the two-dimensional state of the portion of the content.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the computer readable program code is further configured to,

change the portion of the content from the two-dimensional state to the three-dimensional state while simultaneously presenting additional elements of the content in the two-dimensional state.

14. The computer program product of claim 12, said computer readable program code being further configured to,

determine that the portion of the content changes in size,

determine, based on the change in size of the two-dimensional state of the portion of the content, that the portion of the content is displayed incompletely within the area on the graphical user interface while the portion of the content is in the two-dimensional state, and

change the portion of the content from the two-dimensional state to the three-dimensional state in response to determining, based on the change in size of the two-dimensional state of the portion of the content, that the portion of the content is displayed incompletely within the area on the graphical user interface, wherein the change of the portion of the content from the two-dimensional state to the three-dimensional state causes the portion of the content to be displayed completely within the area of the graphical user interface.

15. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the portion of the content is a text string, and wherein the computer readable program code is configured to change the portion of the content from the two-dimensional state to the three-dimensional state being configured to add a stereoscopic depth effect to the text string causing at least a portion of the text string to appear closer to the user in the three-dimensional state than in the two-dimensional state.

16. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein computer readable program code is configured to change a kerning of characters in the text string.

17. An apparatus comprising:

a processing unit;

a graphical user interface; and

a three-dimensional controller operable to, via the processing unit,

detect a selection of a two-dimensional graphical depiction of an object presented via a graphical user interface via the display,

change the two-dimensional graphical depiction of the object to a three-dimensional graphical depiction of the object in response to detecting the selection of the two-dimensional graphical depiction of the object,

detect movement of at least some part of the apparatus, and

move the three-dimensional graphical depiction of the object in response to detecting the movement of the at least some part of the apparatus.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the three-dimensional controller is operable to detect a rotational force applied to the at least some portion of the apparatus.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the three-dimensional controller is further operable to

cause the three-dimensional graphical depiction of the object to rotate according to the rotational force applied to the apparatus.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the apparatus is a mobile device.

21. A method comprising:

presenting a first portion of content and a second portion of content in a two-dimensional view via a graphical user interface, wherein the first portion is associated with a first position in the graphical user interface and the second portion is associated with a second position in the graphical user interface;

detecting a user input associated with the content;

determining that the first portion of the content increases in size in response to the user input; and

changing the first portion of the content from the two-dimensional view to a three-dimensional view in response to determining that the first portion of the content increases in size while continuing to present the second portion of the content in the two-dimensional view, wherein said changing the first portion of the content from the two-dimensional view to the three-dimensional view further includes maintaining the first position of the first portion of the content relative to the second position of the second portion of the content.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

detecting an interaction with the first portion of the content; and

rotating the first portion of the content, in the three-dimensional view, in response to detecting the interaction with the first portion of the content.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

maintaining the first position of the first portion of the content relative to the second position of the second portion of the content during the rotating of the first portion of the content in the three-dimensional view.