3D navigation techniques
First Claim
1. A system that navigates a virtual body within a 3D virtual workspace, the system comprising:
- an input drive control system that monitors changes in input variables associated with actions of a user input device;
a workspace control system that provides a user with a viewing context comprising a position and orientation associated with states of a plurality of workspace variables, at least one of the workspace variable coupled with the input drive control system, such that a selection of the at least one workspace variables allows for a single input motion of the user input device to change the state of the at least one workspace variable and deselection of the at least one workspace variable changes the position and orientation of the viewing context, wherein the change takes place over time such that the user is made aware of the change in position and orientation of the viewing context, wherein deselection of the user input device causes the position and orientation of the virtual body to glide down to a location within a viewing frustum along a ground plane in the 3D virtual workspace; and
a travel control system that couples the at least one of the workspace variables to the input drive control system based on a navigation type, which comprises at least one of speed coupled flying, orbiting, object manipulation technique, ghost copy technique, possession navigation technique, inverse fog technique, inverse scaling technique, and ephemeral world compression.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method is provided for facilitating navigation techniques in a three-dimensional virtual environment. The present invention couples input driving techniques to the state of one or more workspace variables (e.g., object state, virtual body state, environment state) to change the user'"'"'s viewing context within a single input control motion. Modification of the user'"'"'s viewing context allows navigation to various positions and orientations with out the need to be provided with that viewing context prior to navigation. The modification of the user'"'"'s viewing context also allows for single input motion employing the same input drive controls.
82 Citations
76 Claims
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1. A system that navigates a virtual body within a 3D virtual workspace, the system comprising:
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an input drive control system that monitors changes in input variables associated with actions of a user input device;
a workspace control system that provides a user with a viewing context comprising a position and orientation associated with states of a plurality of workspace variables, at least one of the workspace variable coupled with the input drive control system, such that a selection of the at least one workspace variables allows for a single input motion of the user input device to change the state of the at least one workspace variable and deselection of the at least one workspace variable changes the position and orientation of the viewing context, wherein the change takes place over time such that the user is made aware of the change in position and orientation of the viewing context, wherein deselection of the user input device causes the position and orientation of the virtual body to glide down to a location within a viewing frustum along a ground plane in the 3D virtual workspace; and
a travel control system that couples the at least one of the workspace variables to the input drive control system based on a navigation type, which comprises at least one of speed coupled flying, orbiting, object manipulation technique, ghost copy technique, possession navigation technique, inverse fog technique, inverse scaling technique, and ephemeral world compression. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A processor controlled display system for displaying a virtual 3D workspace comprising:
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a processor;
a user input device coupled to the processor, the user input device providing signals indicating actions and requests of a system user to the processor;
a display device coupled to the processor, the display device being operable to displaying a 3D virtual workspace based on instructions from the processor; and
a memory having executable instructions stored therein, the processor in response to the instructions executes animation loop routine which periodically calls one or more workspace routines that provide a viewing context of the 3D virtual workspace on the display device, the viewing context having initial position and orientation associated with the states of a plurality of workspace variables, a least one of the plurality of workspace variables integrated with the user input device based on a navigation type that comprises at least one of speed coupled flying, orbiting, object manipulation technique, ghost copy technique, possession navigation technique, inverse fog technique, inverse scaling technique, and ephemeral world compression, such that a selection of the at least one workspace variables allows for a single input motion of the user input device to change the state of the at least one workspace variable and deselection of the at least one workspace variable changes the position and orientation of the viewing context, wherein the change takes lace over time such that the user is made aware of the change in position and orientation of the viewing context of the 3D virtual workspace on the display device, wherein slowing down of the user input device in a forward direction causes the position and orientation of the virtual body to glide down to a location within a viewing frustum along a around plane in the 3D virtual workspace. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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41. A computer implemented method for implementing a 3D virtual environment comprising;
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displaying a plurality of virtual 3D objects within a 3D virtual environment, the 3D virtual environment having an initial viewing context with an initial position and orientation from a virtual body;
determining a navigation type, which comprises at least one of speed coupled flying, orbiting, object manipulation technique, ghost copy technique, possession navigation technique, inverse fog technique, inverse scaling technique, and ephemeral world compression;
coupling signals associated with actions of a user input device to a state of at least one workspace variable based on the navigation type, the at least one workspace variable being at least one of the plurality of virtual 3D objects, the 3D virtual environment and the virtual body;
selecting the at least one workspace variable;
changing the state of the at least one workspace variable in response to actions of the user input device, wherein slowing down a forward speed of the user input device causes the position and orientation of the viewing context from the virtual body to glide down to the bottom of a viewing frustum along a ground plane in the 3D virtual environment;
deselecting at leas one workspace variable; and
changing the position and orientation over time of the viewing context of the viewing context based on the changing of the state of the at least one workspace variable. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60)
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61. A system that navigates a virtual body within a 3D virtual workspace for identifying objects within the 3D virtual workspace, the system comprising;
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means for displaying a 3D virtual workspace having a plurality of virtual 3D objects and a viewing context from a virtual body, the viewing context having an initial position and orientation;
means for coupling signals associated with actions of a user input device to a state of at least one workspace variable based on a navigation type that comprises at least one of speed coupled flying, orbiting, object manipulation technique, ghost copy technique, possession navigation technique, inverse fog technique, inverse scaling technique, and ephemeral world compression;
means for changing the state of the at least one workspace variable in response to actions of the user input device, wherein deselection of the user input device causes the position and orientation of the virtual body to glide down to a location within a viewing frustum along a ground plane in the 3D virtual workspace; and
means for changing the position and orientation of the viewing context over time based on the changes of the state of the at least one workspace variable. - View Dependent Claims (62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68)
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69. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable for performing the steps comprising;
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displaying a 3D virtual workspace having a plurality of virtual 3D objects and a viewing context from a virtual body, the viewing context having an initial position and orientation;
coupling signals associated with actions of a user input device to a state of at least one workspace variable base on a navigation type that comprises at least one of speed coupled flying, orbiting, object manipulation technique, ghost copy technique, possession navigation technique, inverse fog technique, inverse scaling technique, and ephemeral world compression;
changing the state of the at least one workspace variable in response to actions of the user input device, wherein deselection of the user input device causes the position and orientation of the virtual body to glide down to a location within a viewing frustum along a ground plane in the 3D virtual workspace; and
changing the position and orientation of the viewing context over time based on the changes of the state of the at least one workspace variable.
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70. A system that navigates a virtual body within a 3D virtual workspace, the system comprising:
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an input drive control system that receives changes to a speed of a user input device;
a workspace control system that maintains a viewing context germane to a state of the virtual body that comprises a position and orientation, wherein slowing down a forward speed of the user input device causes the position and orientation of the viewing context from the virtual body to glide down to the bottom of a viewing frustum along a ground plane in the 3D virtual environment; and
a speed coupled flying navigation component that configures height and tilt of the virtual body based on the forward speed of the input device, such that an increase in speed increases the height and tilt of the virtual body and a decrease in speed decreases the height and tilt of the virtual body.
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71. A computer implemented object inspection method for a 3D virtual environment comprising:
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displaying a plurality of virtual three dimensional objects within the 3D virtual environment based on initial position and orientation of the objects;
selecting at least one of the plurality of objects, which creates a copy of the at least one selected objects;
manipulating the copy to a new position and orientation in the virtual environment with a user input device, wherein deselection of the user input device causes the position and orientation of the virtual body to glide down to a location within a viewing frustum along a ground plane in the 3D virtual workspace;
deselecting the at east one of the plurality of objects; and
animating the change in position and orientation of the objects.
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72. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable for performing the steps comprising:
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displaying a viewing context of a 3D virtual workspace based on an initial state of a plurality of virtual 3D objects and an initial state of a virtual body;
selecting at least one of the plurality of objects; and
changing the states of the selected objects and the virtual body with the user input device such that dragging the input device forward and backward moves the viewing context from the virtual body toward and way from the object, respectively, and dragging the input device left or right orbits the viewing context from the virtual body around the object, wherein deselection of the user input device causes the position and orientation of the virtual body to glide down to a location within a viewing frustum along a ground plane in the 3D virtual workspace.
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73. A system that manipulates virtual objects in a 3D virtual workspace comprising:
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an input drive control system that accommodates changes in input variables associated with actions of a user input device;
a workspace control system that maintains a viewing context that corresponds to a state of a 3D virtual object that comprises a position and orientation, wherein deselection of the user input device causes the position and orientation of the virtual body to glide down to a location within a viewing frustum along a ground plane in the 3D virtual workspace; and
a ghost copy navigation component that simultaneously displays a modified viewing context that comprises a plurality of copies of the object in disparate positions and orientations, each copy manipulated to the position and orientation by the input device.
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74. A computer implemented navigation method for a 3D virtual environment comprising:
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displaying an initial viewing context of the 3D virtual environment comprising a plurality of virtual 3D objects, each object possesses an object state that comprises a position and orientation;
selecting at least one of the plurality of objects with a user input device, wherein deselection of the user input device causes the position and orientation of the virtual body to glide down to a location within a viewing frustum along a ground plane in the 3D virtual workspace; and
displaying a second viewing context of the 3D virtual environment from the position and orientation of the selected object.
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75. A system that inspects a 3D virtual workspace comprising:
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means for displaying an initial viewing context of the 3D virtual workspace that comprises a plurality of virtual 3D objects and a virtual body;
means for reducing occlusions within the viewing context by transforming objects within a radius of a sphere locate on the virtual body employing at least one of the inverse fog technique and the inverse scaling technique;
means for compressing a ground plane of the 3D virtual workspace radially around the virtual body; and
means for displaying the radially compressed 3D virtual workspace including objects located behind the virtual body.
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76. A system that inspects a 3D virtual workspace comprising:
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means for displaying an initial viewing context of the 3D virtual workspace that comprises a plurality of virtual 3D objects and a virtual body;
means for controlling a radius of a sphere centered on the virtual body; and
means for reducing occlusions within the viewing context by transforming objects within the radius employing at least one of the inverse fog technique and the inverse scaling technique.
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Specification