Three dimensional graphical display of information

• US 5,751,931 A
• Filed: 04/18/1995
• Issued: 05/12/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Cox, Kenneth Charles, Eick, Stephen Gregory
• Primary Examiner(s): Jankus, Almis R.
• Application Number:
  US08/424,762
• Time in Patent Office: 1,120 Days
• Field of Search: 395/120-140, 395/119
• US Class Current: 345/440
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs

Abstract

A method and apparatus for the three dimensional graphical display of information. Information is displayed as nodes and arcs connecting nodes. The nodes and arcs are displayed with their three dimensional characteristics used to encode data attributes. In one embodiment, the nodes and arcs represent geographic network data and are displayed on a representation of a globe. The height of the arcs above or below the surface of the globe encodes a link attribute of the data, while the height of the nodes above or below the surface of the globe encodes a node attribute of the data. Three dimensional characteristics of the nodes and arcs other than height may also be used to encode data attributes. In addition, the three dimensional representation of the data allows for novel thresholding techniques, such as drawing certain nodes and arcs below the surface of the globe and using the globe as a clipping surface. User interaction is also enhanced, for example by allowing users to interactively manipulate the clipping surface as well as the three dimensional display characteristics of the nodes and links.

Claims

1. An apparatus for representing information in a display in a computer system, said information describing entities and relationships between pairs of entities, said apparatus comprising:

means for displaying a surface representation on said display;

means responsive to said information for displaying a plurality of entity representations on said display, each of said entity representations corresponding to one of said entities; and

means responsive to said information for displaying a plurality of arcs at positions appearing at least in part disposed from said surface representation on said display, each of said arcs connecting the entity representations of a pair of entities, wherein the position of each of said arcs relative to said surface representation is a function of an attribute of the relationship between a pair of entities.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

means for displaying a map on said surface representation.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said information further comprises time series data, said apparatus further comprising:

means responsive to said information for varying the illumination of said surface representation to represent the time interval of the information being represented on said display.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said means responsive to said information for displaying a plurality of arcs on said display further comprises means for displaying a plurality of arcs at positions appearing at least in part below said surface representation on said display.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said means responsive to said information for displaying a plurality of arcs on said display further comprises means for displaying a plurality of arcs at positions appearing at least in part above said surface representation on said display.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said means responsive to said information for displaying a plurality of entity representations on said display further comprises means for displaying a plurality of entity representations appearing above said surface representation on said display.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

means responsive to user interaction for modifying the position of said arcs relative to said surface representation.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein said means responsive to user interaction further comprises:

means for modifying the positions of said arcs, such that the arcs connecting the entity representations of pairs of entities for which said attribute is below a threshold value do not appear on said display.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said means responsive to said information for displaying a plurality of entity representations further comprises:

means for displaying said entity representations with a height relative to said surface representation, wherein said height represents an attribute of said entity.

10. the apparatus of claim 9 further comprising:

means responsive to user interaction for modifying the height of said entity representations relative to said surface representation.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said means for displaying said entity representations with a height relative to said surface representation further comprises means for displaying an entity representation as appearing below said surface representation when the attribute of said entity is below a threshold value.

12. An apparatus for representing information in a display in a computer system, said information describing relationships between pairs of entities, said apparatus comprising:

means for displaying a representation of the surface of a first sphere on said display, said first sphere having a first center;

means responsive to said information for displaying pairs of entity representations corresponding to pairs of related entities on said display; and

means responsive to said information for displaying a plurality of arcs connecting the pairs of entity representations, wherein the maximum radial distances of said arcs from said first center are a function of an attribute of the relationship between pairs of entities.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 further comprising:

means responsive to user input for defining a clipping surface to obscure certain ones of said arcs from said display.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said clipping surface appears as a clipping sphere concentric with said first sphere, said clipping sphere having a radial distance from said first center, wherein said means responsive to user input for defining a clipping surface further comprises:

means for varying the radial distance of said clipping sphere from said first center; and

means for obscuring the portions of arcs which have a radial distance from said first center which is less than the radial distance of said clipping sphere from said first center.

15. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the surface of said first sphere appears translucent.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising:

means responsive to user input for varying the translucence of said first sphere.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said surface representation appears at least in part transparent.

18. An apparatus for displaying information describing entities, in a three dimensional representation on a computer display, said apparatus comprising:

means responsive to said information for displaying graphical glyphs on the display screen such that the position of each of said glyphs in a first dimension and a second dimension is a function of an attribute of a particular one of said entities; and

means responsive to said information for displaying a plurality of arcs at positions appearing at least in part disposed from a surface of said representation on said display, such that the position of each of said arcs in a third dimension relative to said surface is a function of at least one attribute of said particular one of said entities.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 further comprising:

means for altering a characteristic of said nodes in a third dimension such that said characteristic is a function of an attribute of said node information.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein said characteristic of said node in a third dimension is height.

21. The apparatus of claim 18 further comprising means for displaying a sphere having a surface with each position on said surface being described by a latitude and a longitude, wherein

said first dimension is defined by said latitude,

said second dimension is defined by said longitude, and

said third dimension is defined relative to said surface.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 further comprising means for projecting a map on the surface of said sphere.

23. A method for displaying network information in a three dimensional representation on a display in a computer system, said network information representing relationships between pairs of nodes in said network, said method comprising the steps of:

displaying a surface representation on said display;

displaying a plurality of nodes on said display; and

displaying a plurality of arcs at positions appearing at least in part disposed from said surface representation on said display, said arcs connecting pairs of nodes, wherein the position of each of said arcs relative to said surface representation is a function of an attribute of the relationship between a pair of nodes.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising the step of displaying a map on said surface.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein said step of displaying a plurality of arcs further comprises the step of:

displaying a plurality of arcs as Mercator projections.

26. The method of claim 24 wherein said step of displaying a plurality of arcs further comprises the step of:

displaying a plurality of arcs as great circle projections.

27. The method of claim 24 wherein said step of displaying a plurality of arcs further comprises the step of:

displaying a plurality of arcs as rectangular coordinate projections.

28. A method for representing information describing a plurality of nodes on a three dimensional display in a computer system, said information comprising node attributes, the method comprising the steps of:

displaying a representation of a curved surface on said display, said surface defining a first and second dimension; and

displaying a plurality of three dimensional nodes on said display wherein the characteristics of said nodes displayed in the third dimension are a function of said node attributes.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein said information further describes the links between said nodes, said information comprising link attributes, said method further comprising the step of:

displaying arcs connecting said nodes, wherein the characteristics of said arcs displayed in the third dimension are a function of said link attributes.

30. The method of claim 29 further comprising the step of:

altering the characteristics of said arcs in said first and second dimensions as a function of said link attributes.

31. The method of claim 28 further comprising the step of:

altering the characteristics of said nodes in said first and second dimensions as a function of said node attributes.