Method of displaying magnified and reduced areas and apparatus thereof

• US 6,975,335 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2000
• Issued: 12/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Watanabe, Terue
• Primary Examiner(s): YANG, RYAN R
• Application Number:
  US09/733,942
• Publication Number:
  US 20010012409A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,828 Days
• Field of Search: 345/660, 345/661, 345/664, 345/666, 345/667, 345/668, 345/670, 345/671
• US Class Current: 345/660
• 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: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance

Abstract

Magnified and/or reduced areas of a display are easily determined by the shades of color and a pattern densities which correspond to the magnification or reduction ratio of areas of the display. The areas that have been magnified and/or reduced are presented by varying color intensity within areas reduced in size displayed with a deep hue in color to indicate that the area is compressed and a magnified area is displayed with a lighter color to indicate its expansion. Moreover, images of the display can be presented with a specification corresponding to each magnification or reduction ratio by linking the display with a movement of a pointing device, thus realizing a very easy-to-operate user interface.

Claims

1. A method of displaying a diagram in an altered state containing magnified or reduced areas of the diagram, comprising the steps of:

a) storing diagram linkage information as to how display information as to portions of a diagram are affected as to two or more of length, size, shade of color and pattern density when a certain portion of data in the diagram is magnified or reduced with respect to other portions of the diagram;

b) uniformly magnifying or reducing the certain portion of the diagram all with a single designated magnification or reduction ratio;

c) magnifying or reducing at least one but not all of the other portions of the diagram other than the magnified or reduced portion of the diagram in accordance with the diagram linkage information to compensate for changes in the at least one line;

d) obtaining display specification information characterizing the magnification or reduction ratio of each portion of the diagram; and

e) displaying each portion of the diagram based on the display specification information characterizing each magnified or reduced portions magnification or reduction ratio wherein at least one of the shade of color and pattern density of changed portions of the diagram and the corresponding portions of the scale are changed in correspondence to the magnification or reduction ratios of these changed portions to distinguish such changed portions from one another and from portions of the diagram that have not been magnified or reduced in steps b) and c) so that the portions of the diagram are characterized differently depending on their magnification or reduction ratio in the display wherein said diagram is lines of alphanumeric characters and said certain portion is a magnified area of the characters including some but not all characters on some but not all lines of said characters and said reduced portions are characters in a frame surrounding said magnified area that includes characters surrounding the magnified area where the characters in both the magnified and reduced areas retain their character shape.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the displaying each portion of the diagram includes the step of displaying a scale indicating the size of the diagram as well as each of the magnified, reduced and unchanged portions of each line of the diagram as they appear in the display.

8. The method of claim 1 including the step of linking the displaying of the diagram to a pointing device so that a displayed portion is magnified when the area is pointed to by the pointing device.

9. The method of claim 8 including the step of providing a numeric indication as to the number of bits in each displayed portion in that each portions unchanged state.

11. The method of claim 3 including the step of providing a numeric indication as to the number of bits in the unchanged state of each portion along with a bar diagram indicating the changed state of each portion in said scale.

13. The method of claim 1 including the step of linking the displaying of the diagram to a pointing device so that a display area is expanded when that area is pointed to by the pointing device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the magnified and reduced areas are rectangular in shape.

15. The method according to claim 14 including the step of changing the shade of color of the portions of the diagram to characterize their magnification or reduction ratio in the diagram.

16. The method according to claim 14 including the step for changing the pattern density of the portions of the diagram to characterize their magnification or reduction ratio in the diagram.

2. An apparatus for displaying a diagram with a magnified or reduced area, comprising:

means for storing diagram linkage information as to how size and pattern density of other portions of a diagram are affected when a certain portion of a diagram is magnified or reduced;

means for magnifying or reducing the certain portion of the diagram with a designated magnification or reduction ratio;

means for magnifying or reducing the other portions of the diagram other than the magnified or reduced portion of the diagram in accordance with the diagram linkage information;

means for obtaining the display specification information corresponding to the magnification or reduction ratio of each of the portions of the diagrams; and

means for displaying each portion of the diagram based on the display specification information characterizing to each portion magnification or reduction ratio so that the pattern densities of the different portions of the diagram are characterized differently from each other and from unchanged portions of the diagram depending on their magnification or reduction in the display wherein said diagram is lines of alphanumeric characters and said certain portion is a rectangular magnified area of the characters including some but not all characters on some but not all lines of said characters and said reduced portions are characters in rectangular areas surrounding said magnified area that include some but not all characters surrounding the rectangular magnified area where the characters in both the magnified and reduced areas retain their character shape and proportions.

4. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a shade of color of the portions of the diagram is changed in correspondence to their magnification or reduction ratios.

10. The apparatus of claim 2 including means for linking the displaying of the diagram to a pointing device so that a display area is magnified when that area is pointed to by the pointing device.

5. A computer program on a computer-readable recording medium for displaying a single page diagram having magnified and reduced areas, wherein the program comprises:

software for diagram linkage information indicating how other portions of a diagram are to be reduced to maintain display of the full diagram when a certain portion of the diagram is magnified;

software responsive to the diagram and image information for magnifying the certain portion of the diagram with a designated magnification ratio;

software for reducing the portions of the diagram other than the magnified or reduced portion of the diagram in accordance with the diagram linkage information to compensate for the increase in the certain portion;

software for obtaining the display specification information characterizing the magnification or reduction ratio of each of the portions of the diagram;

software for displaying each of the portions of the diagram in accordance with the display specification information characterizing each magnification or reduction ratio so that the magnified and reduced portions of the diagram are characterized differently from each other and unchanged portions of the diagram depending on their magnification or reduction ratio in the display wherein said diagram is lines of alphanumeric characters and said certain portion is a rectangular magnified area of the characters including some but not all characters on some but not all lines of said characters and said reduced portions are characters in rectangular areas surrounding said magnified area that include some but not all characters surrounding the rectangular magnified area where the characters in both the magnified and reduced areas are increased and reduced in size respectively but are otherwise undistorted.

6. The computer program according to claim 5 including software for changing the shade of the color of the portions of the diagram to characterize their magnification or reduction ratios in the diagram.

7. The computer program according to claim 5 including software for changing the pattern density of the portions of the diagram characterize to their magnification or reduction ratios in the diagram.

12. The computer program of claim 5 including software for linking the displaying of the diagram to a pointing of the diagram to a pointing device so that a display area is expanded when that area is pointed to by the pointing device.